


Milkshakes and Slushies

by Retro_pure_jdonica



Series: Milkshakes and Slushies [1]
Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Heathers, F/M, Heathers - Freeform, Pure AU, Retro, it gets emotional around like chapter 19 and emotional again in the thirties so strap in palls, jdonica, jdronica - Freeform, the slowest of slow burns
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-10
Updated: 2018-08-06
Packaged: 2019-03-02 22:26:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 59
Words: 71,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13327662
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Retro_pure_jdonica/pseuds/Retro_pure_jdonica
Summary: Veronica Sawyer starts off her sophomore year of high school in 1959 with two tremendously complicated forces which were polar opposites of each other: the prestigious and privileged Heathers and the ominously intriguing Jason Dean.





	1. Chapter 1

"The absolute value signs show that the equation could either be the same as it's written or the first half could be set equal to negative six instead of positive six so the two possible solutions for X would be negative five and two." 

"Very good Veronica." Mrs. Ripper smiles at me. Her praise wasn't exactly very rewarding though, this is simply review from previous mathematic courses since it's only the first day. My thoughts were somewhat cut off by the sharp sound of the metal alarm clock-like bell on the wall, signifying that it was time to go to our next class. I was in no rush, next period was my study hall.

As I collect my books, I see Heather Duke walk by me. I'm not quite sure why she's in this advanced math class, literature is usually her thing. But she was a Heather, so it went by unquestioned by any other inquisitive students. I just so happen to walk right behind her on my way to the library, I guess she was going to a class in that direction too. As we walk, I see Heather Chandler and Heather McNamara come around a corner and walk in the opposite direction of us.

"Heather, come on." Heather Chandler motions for Heather Duke to begin walking with her.

"Can't, I have AP Lit." Heather Duke sighs in response as she stops directly in front of me.

"Not anymore, come on." Heather Chandler smiles. Whether it was Heather Chandler's infinitely intriguing demeanor or Heather Duke's obedience that caused her to cross the hallway and join the other two Heathers I do not know, but nonetheless I continue on my way to the library.

About thirty minutes into study hall, I become incredibly bored and longed to just wonder for a few minutes. I leave the library and end up standing in a girls bathroom stall filing my nails. I was completely alone until three voices came spilling into the bathroom- Heather, Heather, and Heather. Not but a minute later the gentle 'pat pat' of a pair of flats enters the bathroom.

"Hello Heathers. I don't see any hall pass so whose classes exactly are you skipping?"

I recognized the voice, it was Ms. Fleming. I grab my pencil from my sweater pocket and hurriedly rip out a piece of paper from a notebook and do the best forgery I could of the Yearbook Committee teacher Mrs. Dawson's signature.

"And Ms. Chandler I know you're not in study hall because I'm your study hall supervisor and you don't have it until last period." Ms. Fleming continues. "I guess that will be a detention after school today for all three of you."

The Heathers argue with Ms. Fleming incoherently as I step out of my stall.

"Umm, actually Ms. Fleming all four of us are out on a hall pass, from Yearbook Committee." I speak clearly, defending the three as any other student at Westerburg High would do. Anything to get you on a Heather's good side is a good thing.

"Very well girls, hurry up in here." Ms. Fleming sighs as she walks out of the bathroom, her various earth-colored shawls that were draping from her shoulders waving behind her.

"Who are you?" Heather Chandler asks me. I attempt to remain speaking clearly but I've never been in the direct gaze of Heather Chandler. Her fingers with red painted nails positioned on her hips right above her thick starched petticoat made her look elegant, her pale complexion with her orange Tangee lipstick was like that of a movie star, and her soft blonde curls bounced gracefully on her shoulders as she turned her head towards me, yet she was only a sophomore. Now I get why everyone is amazed by her.

"Uh, I'm Veronica Sawyer, I'm a sophomore." I respond as I place my hand out for her to shake it but she does not, instead she just looks me up and down, so do the other Heathers. 

"I know you want something in return for that, what is it?" She asks, looking at me like I was a peasant but as I speak her expression begins to drastically change into a slight smile. 

"Could I, just for one day, eat lunch with you guys or something? Just even once would be enough for other people to leave me alone." I ask, finding myself sound incredibly desperate as I go on. "I can do all kinds of forgeries for you guys, I know almost half of the teachers signatures by memory."

Completely disregarding everything I had just said, Heather Chandler begins to speak to me. "You're pretty, but you're clothes are hiding that fact. You're smart too, and to fool Ms. Fleming when we already looked super guilty that forgery must have been good." Heather Chandler says. "I'll tell you what, meet me at Heather McNamara's car after school today. We'll stop by her house too so you can call your mom and tell her where you are or whatever, and after that we're taking you shopping. Get an outfit or two and you can hang with us for the rest of the week. Oh, you can be blue! If that goes well, maybe we'll let you in with us." She finishes. She need not discus this with the other Heathers, they were in no position to object what she declared.

"Oh my goodness, thank you so much! You won't regret this." I reply, desperately trying to cover my excitement.

"I better not, bye." Heather Chandler smiled as she turned around and began to walk out of the bathroom, the other Heathers following behind her.

I stood in shock for a few seconds in front of one of the sinks. If everything goes smoothly, I could be a Heather.


	2. Chapter 2

‘Shopping’ with the Heathers ended up mainly consisting of them hurling various skirts, sweaters, and petticoats at me and then shuffling me into a dressing room to try them on for the Heathers’, but mainly Heather Chandler’s, approval. We narrowed the clothing down to just a couple skirts, sweaters, blouses, and a pearl necklace, a single petticoat, and a pair of saddle shoes.

“Here, this will be my present to you. Think of it as a welcoming gift.” Heather McNamara said, taking the various garments from my hands.

“Woah this is all in total like $18, there’s no way I’m letting you spend that much on me.” I protest, reaching my hands out to take the clothes back.

“Come on Veronica, do you even have that much?” Heather Duke asked me in a slightly condescending way.

“Yes, when I called my mother and she told me to come home first, I grabbed thirty bucks before we left.” I reply, not feeling too bad about discussing my parents wealth with Heather Duke after her rude comment. I heard McNamara and Duke both mutter soft ‘damn’s under their breath.

“God Heather don’t be stupid. You saw her room.” Heather Chandler said, clearly directed at Heather Duke. Once we left the mall Heather McNamara dropped me back off at my place before riding off with the others.

***

‘September 2nd, 1959. Dear Diary, I’ve noticed in almost every class of mine so far people looking at me, pointing at me, or whispering about me. Ever since I stepped out of Heather McNamara’s car this morning, I’ve been getting an alarmingly high level of attention. It’s not the fact that I’m dressing a certain way, I could dress like this whenever I like, it’s that I’m walking around and talking with the-’ my writing was cut off by Heather McNamara tapping her knee on my back. 

“Veronica, Heather wants to see you in the cafeteria. I’d hurry if I were you.” Heather McNamara informs me as I stand up from the stairs where I had been writing. Heather Duke stood on the other side of me.

“Do you know what about?” I ask openly to either one who knows the answer as we walk to the cafeteria.

“She needs a forgery, don’t know about what or in who’s handwriting.” Heather Duke sighs as we walk through the cafeteria doors. The large room smelled deeply of cigarette smoke, no doubt to Ms. Fleming’s dismay.

“Veronica, finally. I need a note in Kurt Kelly’s handwriting. Since I’m the best, I went ahead and got an assignment of his for you to copy the handwriting from.” Heather Chandler smiled as she handed me a pencil, a blank sheet of paper, and some essay Kurt had written. She looked very pleased with herself.

“What’s this for, anyway?” I ask, taking the papers and pencil. I glance over at Kurt Kelly who is, obviously, with his other half Ram Sweeney. Although they look quite different, their outfits are practically copies of each other’s- dark pants, a white button up with their letterman sweaters over the skirts, occasionally a tie tucked between the two layers.

“You know that lard-o, Martha Dunstock?” Heather Chandler asks me.

“More like Martha Dump Truck.” Heather Duke laughs. 

“Be quiet Heather, bend over so Veronica can write.” Heather Chandler barks at her.

Heather Duke tilts her torso downwards so I place the papers on her back and get ready to write. “Yes, but what does she have to do with this?” I ask.

“Just write what I tell you in Kurt’s handwriting. ‘Dear Martha, I’ve been thinking about you recently. I would be delighted if you would come to my homecoming party this weekend. Sincerely, Kurt Kelly.’” Heather Chandler instructed me. I wrote as she said, but slightly reluctantly.

“Does Kurt even know what 'delighted’ means?” Heather McNamara laughed. Instead of telling her to hush like she did Heather Duke, Heather Chandler chuckled a little bit.

“Heather please don’t give this to Martha, she’s never done anything to you.” I attempt to reason with Heather Chandler.

“I know she hasn’t but it will be funny. You’re always welcome to go back to being a nerd if you’d like.” Heather Chandler smiled in a viciously sarcastic way as she snatched the note from Heather Duke’s back.

“Mac, go slip this onto Martha’s lunch tray.” Heather Chandler said, holding the note between two fingers in front of Heather McNamara’s face. Heather Chandler sat down, a sign for me and Heather Duke to sit down, as Heather McNamara followed behind Martha before slipping her arm under Martha’s and dropping the note on her tray without her seeing.

“So, Sawyer, can you guess what today is?” Heather Chandler asked me.

“Isn’t this the day you guys do that lunch time poll?” I ask her. I’ve never done one of these, I only became a part of the group yesterday. 

“Good job Veronica, every Friday.” Heather Chandler responds.

“So, what’s today’s question?” I ask.

“Yeah so what’s the question, Heather?” Heather Duke asks.

“God Heather you were with me in study hall when I thought of it.” Heather Chandler responds, rolling her eyes.

“Sorry, I forgot.” Heather Duke mumbles back. I’m not quite sure why Heather Chandler is so rude to Heather Duke, Heather Duke does try really hard, maybe a little bit too hard, but her rudeness is a little bit much.

“Come on Veronica, let’s go ask.” Heather Chandler asks as she stands up from the table. She didn’t invite the other two Heathers so they stayed seated while I stood and began to walk with Heather Chandler. “I told Dennis that if he gives me another political topic, or one about the Communists, I’d quit asking them.”

I try to tune out Heather as I look around the cafeteria. In a corner near the back I spot a boy who definitely wasn’t here last year and who’s name I don’t know. He wore grease in his hair and a heavy black leather jacket and the sat with his chair tilted back onto just two legs. We made eye contact and I gave him a smile but simply the way he looked at me made me blush.

“Veronica, Veronica!” Heather Chandler snapped, forcing me to tune her back in. “Why don’t you ask Courtney and Keith here our lunch time poll question.” 

I turned to look at Courtney and Keith, along with their little group of friends. The group of them were clearly all from wealthy families and had no problem with showing it off. “Alright, you win $600,000 in the Publishers Sweepstakes the same day aliens land on Earth and say they’re going to take over the world in two days. What do you do?” I ask openly to the whole group. Keith was quick to answer first.

“Easy. I’d slide that wad over to my father, because he is like on if the top brokers in the state.” Keith fake smiles at me and Heather. The size of his ego was vomit inducing. I rolled my eyes and waited for someone else to answer but nobody did.

“Thanks Keith, I’ll be sure to write that down.” Heather Chandler smiled as she walked away, a sign for me to follow her, and she made sure it was very obvious that she wasn’t writing anything down. “Let’s ask them.” Heather Chandler said as she began walking to a table that seated my best childhood friend, Betty Finn.

“Betty, hi, I haven’t seen you in forever.” I greet her in a warm voice, making her turn around to meet my eyes.

“Veronica! You look do different.” Betty smiles. This fancy sweater, pearl necklace, and a quite noticeable petticoat isn’t what she’s used to seeing me in.

“Alright so this is the first lunch time poll this year. The scenario is that you won-” I begin to say but apparently Heather McNamara had walked up to me and Heather Chandler while Betty and I were chatting and she began taking.

“Hurry up, it’s happening."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry that I took out a lot of quotes that cussed or were “unladylike”, very much so including “fuck me gently with a chainsaw”, but I’m trying to make this decently accurate to the time period or at least as accurate as it can get. Speaking of accuracy, the money definitely sounds a little off so here are some money then vs money now comparisons.  
> $18 in 1959 ~ $150 in 2017  
> $30 in 1959~ $250 in 2017  
> $600,000 in 1959 ~ $5,000,000 in 2017


	3. Chapter 3

“Oh goodie, come on Veronica.” Heather Chandler viciously smiles before beginning to walk over to where the other Heathers were sitting. “There she goes.” She mumbles, following poor Martha, who was currently walking over towards Kurt and Ram, with her eyes.

Martha lays down the note in front of Kurt and Ram, begins to smile as she blushes, and says something I couldn’t hear. Kurt picks up the note, glances over it, then passes it to Ram. Within seconds the two begin bursting out laughing, then start laughing directly at Martha. Martha stumbles backwards then runs out of the cafeteria. The Heathers begin laughing too, but not quite as loud as Kurt and Ram were.

Feeling as if I’m about to throw up, I look over at the boy wearing the leather jacket in the corner to see that he was already looking at me. I assume he say me write the note and understood the situation a little bit, because he shrugged and sighed.  
“God Veronica, drool much?” Heather Mac laughs, noticing me and that guy looking at each other. “His name is Jason Dean, J.D. for short, he’s in my American History.”

***

“Veronica, are you ready for tonight?” Heather Chandler asked me as she hit her bright red croquet ball perfectly through a hoop.

“The homecoming party? I can hardly wait.” I very forcibly smile, but Heather wasn’t paying any attention, her croquet ball had just hit Heather Duke’s.

“So what are you going to do, Heather, take the two shots or send me out?” Heather Duke asked. Heather Chandler walked over to her and looked her directly in the eyes.

“Did you have a brain tumor for breakfast? First you ask if you could be red, knowing that I’m always red.” Heather Chandler sighs. She steps back before hitting Heather Duke’s ball into a bush. “It’s your turn Heather.” She sneers in an awfully evil way. Thankfully, my mother and father walk onto the back porch to interrupt the game.

“Heather, your mother is here.” My mom smiles, obviously talking to Heather McNamara.

“Come on whoever wants a ride.” Heather Mac says as she begins to walk off of the yard and toward the front door. All of the Heathers mumble their ‘bye’s and ‘thank you’s as they flow past my parents.

“Sit down Veronica.” My dad invites me as he flips one of the seemingly endless pages in his many spy novels.

“So, homecoming is coming up pretty soon, any contestants worth mentioning?” My mom asks as she pours me a cup of lemonade.

“Maybe, there’s kind of a dark horse in the running.” I smile, referencing JD. “I’m sorry but I probably need to hurry if I want to make it to that party, great pâté mom.” I say, standing up from the table and scurrying up to my room.

Not even ten minutes after the Heather leave, my phone begins to ring. “Hello?” I answer. It’s Heather Chandler.

“Veronica, I forgot to ask, what do you plan on wearing?” Heather Chandler asks.

“Probably that all blue dress with the circle neck I got with a small petticoat underneath it, probably a thin white belt, white flats with little bows on them, and maybe some small pearl earrings. Is that okay?” I question her.

“Yes. Heater Duke and I will ride over to your house with Heather McNamara in about an hour. Bye.” Heather responds before hanging up the phone.

Getting dressed and putting on some makeup only took about thirty minutes, so I had another half an hour before the Heathers arrived. I spent the time listening to the radio and attempting to begin one of the few homework assignments I was given this weekend. After about forty five minutes of working, the doorbell rings.

I grab my purse and scurry down the stairs, heading towards the front door. “Bye mom! Bye dad! Heather is here.” I say before stepping out the front door.

“Veronica, you look okay.” Heather Chandler smiles as she looks me up and down. “Come on, we need to stop by the 7-Eleven before the party.” She says before leading me towards Heather McNamara’s car. I climbed into the backseat and sat beside Heather Duke. Heather Chandler obviously sat in front passenger and, since Heather McNamara was the only one of us who has a license, she drove. Heather McNamara was already a junior while the restrictions of us were sophomores.

Within a few minutes, we arrive at the 7-Eleven. “Veronica, run in and get us a few bags of corn-nuts.” Heather Chandler demands, handing me a few couple quarters. I climb out of the car and begin to walk towards the doors.

“BQ or plain?” I shout to Heather as I open the door.

“BQ!” Heather Chandler yells back. I sigh and walk through the door. One of the first things I see is J.D., leaning against a counter and drinking a slushie.

“Hello Jason Dean.” I smile as I walk over too him, realizing a little bit too late that he doesn’t know that I know his name. 

“Greetings and salutations.” J.D. chuckles, sitting his drink down on the counter behind him. “Veronica, isn’t it?” He asks.

“Yes.” I blush, he knows my name too. I grab a few bags of corn-nuts from a stand. 

“You gonna pull a super chug with that?” J.D. asks, looking down at my hand.

“No, but if you’re nice I’ll let you buy me a slushie.” I smile, glancing over to his slushie which sat on the counter. He laughs a small bit in response. “I see you know your convenience speak pretty well.”

“Yeah, well, I’ve been moved around the majority of my life. Dallas, Baton Rouge, Sherwood Ohio, there’s always been a snappy snack shack. Any town, any time, pop a ham and cheese in the microwave and feast on a turbo dog, keeps me sane.” He explains, stepping around from one side of me to the other.

I begin to open my mouth to respond but I’m cut off by a jarring honk coming from the parking lot. I look out one of the many windows to see Heather Chandler leaning over into the drivers seat with her hand on the steering wheel, her eyes threateningly wide.

“You on a tight schedule?” J.D. asks humorously. I smile back and sigh. “Hey, everyone’s life’s got static.”

“Yeah, mine is that I don’t exactly like my friends.” I laugh. 

“I don’t really like your friends either.” J.D. responds, causing me to maintain my smile. “Did you say cherry or coke shushie?” He asks which makes me blush.

“I didn’t, cherry.”

***

I follow J.D. out of the store. He walks over to an incredible all black motorcycle. “Nice bike.” I comment as he sits down on the bike seat sideways and lights a cigarette.

“Just a humble perk from my dad’s construction company. You’ve probably heard of him, bringing every state to a higher state.” J.D. sighs before taking a long draw from his cigarette, a subtle sign that he may not like his dad too much. 

“Oh yeah, you’re father’s Big Bud Dean.” I respond. He begins to say something back but another loud honk comes from Mac’s car.

“Veronica!” Heather Chandler screeches, staring at me through the windshield. I see Heather McNamara mouth 'sorry’.

“I guess I’ll see you later.” I smile, backing away from J.D..

“Definitely.” He smirks, looking me up and down one last time before meeting eyes with me. I feel my cheeks turn red as I walk toward Heather’s car.

“God, Veronica, could you have taken any longer flirting with that greaser over there?” Heather Chandler asks as I crawl back into the car with my drink and the corn-nuts. I hand the quarters back to Heather as I apologize. “Whatever, lets motor.”


	4. Chapter 4

“This is your big chance Veronica, don’t blow it.” Heather Chandler informs, more accurately threatens, me as we walk up to Kurt Kelly’s front door. Heather Duke leans forward and presses the doorbell. Ram opens the door, causing a wave of music to flow outside.

“Ladies, come on in.” Ram smiles, directed mainly towards the actual Heathers, as he steps to the side for us to walk in. Since we didn’t arrive until about 9:30, there was already a decent gathering of people here, all of which of course stopped what they were doing to see the Heathers walk into the party and what they were wearing. People also looked at me a lot, something I’m still not used to.

I followed the Heathers into the living room where we all sat down on a couch. A few people in the room were smoking inside for whatever reason, but nobody was drinking. A few were standing off towards the kitchen dancing to the music emitting loudly from the radio sitting on the counter.

“Veronica, would you step outside with me for a few minutes?” Heather McNamara asked me, I gladly accepted the offer to escape this party. I stood up and walked alongside her to the back porch. She lights a cigarette between her lips and begins smoking. “You look like you need one, do you?” Heather asks, tilting her open carton of cigarettes towards me.

“Yes please.” I laugh nervously, pulling out one of the cigarettes and lighting it with her lighter. 

“Have you ever drank before?” Heather asks me. I shake my head no. “Well you probably will tonight, sorry. There’s always alcohol at Kurt and Ram’s parties. It’s whatever their college friends will get them which, to our dismay, is usually vodka.”

“Great.” I sigh, leading up against the back wall of the house. 

“After the first one, these parties are usually optional. This is just Heather Chandler seeing if we’re ‘cool’ enough to hang with her. Also, she’s usually a lot nicer to be around after the first party. By the way, I don’t think Martha will be coming tonight after that whole incident in the cafeteria, I’m sorry about that too.” Heather McNamara explains. The more she talks the more I realize how similar we are. Neither of us really like how mean Heather Chandler is, but we hang out with her anyways. Although Heather McNamara has it a little bit easier than me, seeing as she’s cheer captain and rich, we’re still both stressed out about being at this party. “I guess we better go back inside, huh?”

“Yes.” I reply, straightening back up after having been leaning against the wall and walking back inside with Heather.

“Alright, who’s ready to have some fun.” Kurt laughs as he walks into the living room, where most of the people are. He carries two bottles of alcohol and Ram is following behind him holding onto multiple shot glasses. 

“I think our four beautiful guests of honor would like to go first.” Ram suggests, obviously reference me and the Heathers. 

“We would love to.” Heather Chandler smiles as she places her hand out for a shot. Ram fills one of the small glasses with, what I presume is, vodka and then hands it to Heather. She swiftly tilts her head back and drinks the alcohol, coughing a little bit afterwards. “Duke, your turn.”

Heather Duke virtually copies what Heather Chandler just did with the same after affects of coughing. Heather McNamara then does the same, but coughs a little more.

“Veronica, your turn.” Heather Chandler smiles devilishly as she hands me a shot. I didn’t have an option of whether I wanted to or not, so I went ahead and took the shot from her hand. Heather Chandler sat right next to me and I could feel her staring at me even as I closed my eyes and drank the shot. It tasted the way rubbing alcohol smells but much stronger and was absolutely repulsive. I start coughing more than anybody else had and am about to vomit. I jolted up from the couch and ran out the front door before vomiting onto some bush. I hear somebody else slam the front door so I look up and am faced with Heather Chandler. 

“What the hell Veronica?” She barks at me. I wipe my mouth and sigh. “You can’t even deal with one single shot?”  
“I’ve never drank before right now Heather!” I snap back, quickly realizing that that was a horrible idea. It’ll take a miracle for her to not ruin me now.

“Get a ride home, you’re not coming back inside. I’ll think about if you can still be with us from now on but you’re on thin ice, bitch.” Heather hisses at me. None of the Heather cuss insanely often, so I consider Heather using this language as a sign that she’s very mad. She storms back inside, shutting the door loudly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part of this being a pure au is that everyone is a lil nicer so in this au Heather McNamara and Veronica are legit friends.


	5. Chapter 5

My mouth feels disgusting so I walk over to Heather's car and grab my slushie from the backseat. I drink it as I pace the sidewalks of the neighborhood. There's no realistic way I can walk home, I don't know how to get home from here since we stopped at the 7-Eleven, so I need to find a pay phone to call one of my parents to come pick me up or ask for directions. 

As I'm pondering my options, my eyes land on an all black motorbike parked outside of a house, the exact same motorbike J.D. rode away from the 7-Eleven on. I cross the road and walk into the driveway of, supposedly, J.D.'s house. There is a large white van parked beside the motorcycle with a huge logo that read 'Big Bud Dean Construction', a verification that this is definitely J.D.'s house. 

I begin to circle around the one story house, peering into windows to see if I can find J.D.. On the right side of the house, I spot J.D. sitting on a bed, slowly grazing his eyes down pages of a book. I knock on the window which quickly gains his attention. His eyes look shocked and he wears a smile on his lips as he stand up from his bed and rushes to open the window. 

"Hi there, give me a lift?" I ask as I stick my hand through his now open window. He takes my hand and helps me climb up and over the small three or so foot wall of bricks.

"H-how'd you find my address?" J.D. asks as I brush off and flatten out my skirt. 

"Oh, I saw your bike out front." I respond, oddly nonchalantly for the situation.

"Um, a-are you okay? Do you need help?" He questions me and I begin to realize how intensely confused he must be right now.

"No not really I just, can I sit down?" I ask pointing at his bed. He simply responds with 'sure'. "Well at the 7-Eleven-" I pause to smile and lift my slushie up "you saw me getting food for the homecoming party tonight at Kurt Kelly's house. At the party we began taking shots, and I've never drank before tonight. So I took a shot of vodka, since I didn't exactly have a choice with Heather Chandler sitting right next to me, and I ran outside and threw up. Heather got all pissed at me and kicked me out. Since I don't know how to get home from here I was scared I was going to have to sleep on the sidewalk or something but luckily I found your house." I explain, he nods along every once in a while. Even if I did know how to get home from here, I wouldn't like having to explain to my mom why I came home so early.

"Sounds, ah eventful, and quite awful." J.D. chuckles. I roll my eyes and end the rotation with looking at him and smiling.

"So, could I pretty pretty please crash here tonight? Probably not on a couch or anything in case your dad comes out so do you have like a guest bedroom or something?" I ask. I'm no doubt totally overstepping, but I'm very desperate right now.

"We don't have a guest bedroom, but you can take my bed. I can pile some extra blankets on the floor for me." He offers very generously.

"A-are you sure?" I ask. I would feel like a burden if I were to take his bed.

"Yeah, you're fine. I'm gonna go grab some blankets for me. You can call your mom and tell her you're spending the night at one of the Heathers house's or something." He reassures me. I can see if he can drive me back home tomorrow, that way everything seems fine to my parents as long as they don't see his motorcycle. 

After he slips out through the door, I take a moment to examine his room. There were a few cardboard boxes standing in a corner, I assume from moving, but other than that the room was quite clean. I looked down on his gray bedding to see what he was reading. The title was in another language and the author's name was Charles Baudelaire.

"Hey." J.D. smiles softly as he steps back into the room, carrying several blankets in his arms. He walks over towards me to turn on his beside table lamp before turning off the ceiling light. I kick off my flats and lie down on my side so that I'm facing J.D. before pulling the covers up and over my legs. J.D. lays down his multiple blankets down on the ground and lies down on top of them.

I feel incredibly bad about forcing him out of his bed, I just met him today and he doesn't owe me anything. "Do you want to just sleep up here with me?" I offer as I sit up on the bed.

"Yeah, that's be a lot nicer than this, thanks." J.D. awkwardly chuckles as he stands up and walks around to the side of the bed that I'm not on. He lies down and keeps respectable distance from me, probably more for my sake than his. I turn out the lamp and rest my head on the pillow once more. Within a few minutes, we both fall asleep.

***

My eyes open to see sunlight spilling in through the blinds. Although we fell asleep rather far apart, apparently me and J.D. moved closer together as we were sleeping, seen as his arm was loosely draped over my waist.

"Jason, Jason!" I hear a man's voice shouting from somewhere else inside the house. J.D. raises up on the bed and stands up.

"Is that your dad? Should I hide or something?" I ask very worriedly, contrasting his calm nature.

"He hasn't cared about me or what I do for the past sixteen years, he's got no reason to care now." J.D. laughs as he begins to walk towards the door. I lay back down, still exhausted, and hear J.D. leave the room.

After almost falling asleep again, J.D. walks back into his room. "What was that about?" I ask as I roll over on the bed so that I'm facing him. 

"He was just telling me that he's leaving for work." J.D. sighs as he sits back down on the bed. I suddenly remember everything that happened at the party last night. 

"Oh my god, oh my god." I panic, jumping up from the bed and putting my shoes on.

"Woah, what happened, what's wrong?" J.D. asks as he stands up with me.

"I have to go apologize to Heather about last night."


	6. Chapter 6

"I need to beg her to not, I don't know, ruin me." I continue speaking frantically.

"What? Why?" J.D. asks. He definitely doesn't understand the situation, but there's no way I could expect him to.

"I embarrassed her at a huge party, there's no way she'll let me go back to living a normal life with no troubles at all." I ramble on. "Do you know where Crestwood drive is?"

"Yeah, that's on the drive to school. I can take you there." He generously offers.

"You're a life saver." I smile back, grabbing my purse from the nightstand. "We should wait a few minutes for your dad to leave though."

"If you insist." J.D. sighs as he sits back down on the edge of the bed.

***

"Want me to come inside with you?" J.D. asks as he climbs off of his motorcycle.

"That would be wonderful." I smile, stepping onto Heather Chandler's driveway. We walk up to her front door and ring the doorbell. A minute or two go by and nobody comes.

"Maybe she's not home, there are no cars in the driveway." J.D. points out, but I know Heather better.

"Trust me, she skips the Saturday morning trips to grandma's house even when she hasn't been partying." I explain. I reach forward and the door is unlocked, so I invite myself and J.D. inside. "Heather, Heather!"

"What!" I hear Heather scream from her bedroom. I walk over to her bedroom and stand outside the door.

"I-It's Veronica, I'm hear to apologize." I speak loudly so that she can hear me through the door.

"Fix me a prairie oyster and I'll think about it!"

"Prairie oyster, what is that?" I ask J.D., keeping my voice slightly low to not excessively disturb Heather.

"Raw egg, hit sauce, Worcestershire, salt, pepper..." J.D. trails on but I still don't know what he's talking about. "It's a basic hangover cure." He shrugs.

"Oh, okay." I mumble as I begin to walk to Heather's kitchen, J.D. following behind me. I hunt around her cabinets until I find everything J.D. had listed and a cup.

"I'll make it, I've had plenty of experience." J.D. laughs.

"How have you learned about all this?" I ask as he cracks an egg into the cup.

"My dad trained me well." He smiles. From what I've gathered, J.D. has a not-so-good dad. "Here." J.D. says, handing me the cup.

"Thank you." I smile as I take the cup and begin to walk into Heather's room with J.D. following cautiously behind me. "Good morning, Heather."

"Ah, Veronica and Jesse James, quelle surprise." Heather sighs as she sits up in her bed, the tulle of her red baby doll pajamas draping behind her. "Well you said you came to apologize, so apologize." She demands, taking the cup from my hands and quickly drinking it. "And I would prefer if you did this on your knees, in front of your boy toy here."

"I-I'm sorry about last night and how I-" I begin, ignoring that she told me to kneel because I assumed she was joking. Apparently, she was not.

"Does it look like I kidding? Down." Heather snaps at me. I give J.D. a quick glance and he turns his head away to make me a little less embarrassed. I get down on my knees and begin to apologize again.

"I'm sorry about running out last night and embarrassing you, nothing like that will ever happen again." I say, trying to be thorough but also trying to get this over with quickly.

"It better not, now get out." Heather replies, laying back down on her bed. I stand up and follow J.D. out of her room, closing the door behind me.

"Jeez, is she always like that?" J.D. asks as we walk out of the front door and back towards his bike.

"She's not usually that bad, I think she was trying to embarrass me in front of you." I laugh as I climb onto the back of the motorcycle.

"Well, for the record, it didn't work. Want me to take you home?" J.D. asks as he starts the engine.

"Yeah, I know how to get home from here. If you keep going straight and then turn right onto Elk Grove road, my neighborhood is the first one on the left." I explain. J.D. responds with 'okay' and then starts driving. Once we pull into my neighborhood, he slows down so I can tell him where to go from there.

"Thank you so much for the ride. I guess I'll see you on Monday." I thank J.D. as I climb off of his bike. I suddenly think about the fact that I've slept at his house before but I don't even know his phone number. "Wait, stay right here, I will be right back." I tell him before running inside to get a notepad. Luckily my parents aren't in the living room so I don't have to stop to talk to them and keep J.D. waiting. 

Once I get a pen and a notepad, I run back outside to J.D.. "Here, I just realized that I don't have your number." I say, handing him the pen and paper. He quickly writes down his phone number before handing everything back to me. On another peace of paper I write down my number and give it to him. "Thanks, just in case I need saving again." I smile. I lean forward and kiss him on the cheek as a small thank you before saying goodbye and walking back inside.

I decide to look around for my parents to let them know that I'm home. I first go to their bedroom, since that's where the most likely are. I knock on the door and then hear my mother say 'come in'. I walk inside and see her and my father sitting on their bed.

"Hello, I just wanted to let you know that I'm home." I say, standing in the doorway.

"Oh, thank you dear." My mom smiles as she glances up from her magazine. I step out of the doorway and close the door. I get a glass of water from the kitchen before waking upstairs to my room.

I see the remnants of makeup on my face from last night in my dressing table mirror and immediately sit down to take it off. I rub cold cream over my eyes and lips before wiping it, along with the makeup, off of my face with a wet cloth. I'm also still in a party dress and the petticoat has begun to itch severely. I step into my closet and change into a blue slip and a robe.

I walk back out into my room and grab my work basket from atop my dresser. Hunting through it, I find the main blanket I've been working on recently. I retrieve the correct size hook I've been using to make the blanket and sit down on my bed to continue working on it. I reach over to my bedside table and turn on my radio to have some nice background music and begin crocheting.


	7. Chapter 7

"Veronica." Heather Chandler says as she stops me in the hallway. "I've decided to let Friday night slide, making you look like a fool in front of J.D. was enough for me. See you at lunch." She smiles before walking away and allowing me to go to class. She was an absolute enigma.

Once I get to my trigonometry class, I see Heather Duke sitting with a seat open right next to her so I sit down in it. "Heather already told me that she is going to forgive you so don't worry, I'll be nice." Heather Duke smiles. It's a genuine smile though, which is ironic considering the tone she was just speaking in.

"Thanks." I laugh nervously.

"So, you and Jason Dean?" Heather Duke asks suggestively.

"Oh my goodness, did Heather tell you and Mac?" I question as I become increasingly panicked as I think about who else they may have told.

"Maybe, but again don't worry too much, I nor Mac told anybody else. I can't say that much for Heather Chandler, though." Heather says, a slightly pitiful look in here eyes.

"D-do you know the names of anyone else she's told?"

"I think just Kurt and Ram, but they can't keep their mouths shut even if their lives depended on it so I don't know who all knows by now. It's probably just a bunch of guys though." Heather Duke informs me. Hopefully not too many people know, I'd rather not have a scandalous reputation.

***

"Hey Ronnie." I hear J.D. say from behind me. I turn around to see him smoking as he leaning against the outside of the school building.

"Hey, I'm sorry I have to go catch the bus." I explain as I take small steps towards him, not wanting to stray too far from my path I was going on.

"Not anymore, I'll give you a ride." He smiles before he drops and smothers his cigarette in the dirt. I sigh and decide to give in to his offer, noticing a smile forming on my face as I walk over to him. "Come on."

We haven't talked since I slept over at his house, and I'm quite happy at the thought of us becoming friends, possibly a little bit more than friends. He's very kind and caring, attractive too. I follow him over to his motorbike and climb on after him. "Let's go to your house." I suggest. "I'll tell my mom I'm at a Heather's." J.D. responds by saying 'alright' and we drive off to his house.

When we arrive, his fathers car is gone. "I think he'll be back around five, he usually is." J.D. informs me as we begin to walk inside. I go straight to his bedroom to use his phone to call my mother. Once I reach his phone, I see the piece of paper with my phone number slightly tucked underneath the phone. I call my house and after a few rings my mother picks up.

"Hi mom, it's Veronica, I'm at Heather Chandler's house right now. I'll be home in about an hour." I, not so truthfully, inform her.

"No you're not, I need you to come home right now and tell me just exactly who you've been with." She says sternly before hanging up. I become very nervous and scared, which is apparently quite obvious to J.D. as he walks into his room.

"Woah, what's wrong?" J.D. asks as he walks over to me.

"I-I need you to take me home. My mom just told me that she knows I'm not with Heather and that I need to come home right now." I explain as I stand up from his bed.

"Oh, shit, I'm sorry. Do you want me to drop you off like down the road so they don't see you with me?" J.D. offers, suggesting a pretty good idea but, from what I assume my mother knows, it's not to much use.

"She knows I've been out with someone else and she'll want me to explain so there's no point in trying to, I don't know, hide you now." I ramble as I quickly walk towards his front door. "You do know how to get to my house from yours, right?" I clarify with J.D. as we approach his bike since he's never taken me directly from his house to mine or vice versa.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." He replies as he sits down on the motorcycle.

"I'm so sorry for putting you through this, I shouldn't have suggested coming to your house." I apologize as I get onto the bike.

"I'm the one who brought up the idea of you riding with me in the first place, if anyone should be apologizing it's me." J.D. laughs, lightening the mood a small bit before we begin driving off to my house.

Luckily, when we arrive, nobody is standing outside of the house so J.D. isn't directly dragged into this. "Call me afterwards, okay?" J.D. says as I slide off of his bike.

"Of course, bye." I smile before I turn around and walk up the driveway and into my house. I'm immediately met with my mother and father sitting on the couch in the living room.

"Mrs. Fredericks next door called me yesterday evening and informed me that when you came home yesterday, you were dropped off by some delinquent wearing a leather jacket on a motorcycle. And right before you called me and lied to me saying that you were with Heather Chandler, I was on the phone with Mrs. Chandler who said that her and Heather are going out for dinner tonight, so there's no way she would have company over. So what is the name of this boy you have been spending so much time with that you've been lying to me about?" My mother carries on, spewing out information about how she knows I've been lying. 

I've never been able to cover up when I've been caught in a lie, so there's not much else I can do other than tell the truth. "H-his name is Jason Dean, and we're simply friends." I tell her, not so sure how true the second part of my sentence is.

"Well you clearly don't think so if you're hiding him from me and your father, go up to your room." My mother scolds me, causing me to sink my head down in slight shame. I walk up the stairs and into my room. I wait a few minutes to make sure J.D. is home before I pick up his phone number from my bedside table and dial his phone. After a few rings he picks up and says hello.

"Hi, it's Veronica." I say, attempting to sound happier so that he doesn't become too concerned.

"Hey, how bad was it?" He asks.

"Not to bad, I don't know if I'm grounded yet, but my mother does know your name now and she probably doesn't have the best impression of you." I explain.

"Well all that about me doesn't matter as long as you're fine." J.D. chuckles lightly. "But, if you're worried about them not liking me then why don't I meet them and attempt to convince them otherwise."

"That would be helpful." I smile. "We'll talk about it tomorrow at school. Goodbye J.D.."


	8. Chapter 8

"Veronica?" My mom asks as she knocks on my door.

"Yes?" I reply, sitting up on my bed. She opens the door and walks inside.

"Veronica, why didn't you simply tell me about him? I wouldn't have been mad, it's good that you've met a boy, it's about time you start going on dates." She explains as she sits down on my bed.

"I didn't think you would like him." I laugh lightly.

"Well me and your father wish to meet him. After that, if we think he's good for you, you have our permission to go on dates with him." She says as she stands up from my bed.

"Thank you, goodbye." I smile as she walks out of my room.

A few minutes after she leaves, my phone begins to ring. "Hello?" I ask as I answer the phone.

"Hey Veronica, it's Heather McNamara." Heather says cheerily on the other line. "We didn't get much time to talk today at lunch, how are you?"

"I'm quite good, how have you been since the party?" I question her.

"I've been okay. Not much happened after you left Kurt's house, just the usual dancing and gossiping. So, you and Jason?" Heather asks and I can virtually hear her smile through the phone.

"Oh my goodness, what has Heather Chandler told you and Duke?" I laugh, fore I assumed boys were a semi-casual thing for the Heathers by now.

"Just that you appeared at her house in the early morning after the party joined by him, which made me wonder, where did you stay after Heather kicked you out?" 

"Yes I spent the night at his house, but nothing happened." I explain.

"Alright I believe you. Well I guess I'll see you tomorrow at school, bye." Heather McNamara says before hanging up the phone. I hang up my phone too and begin the day's homework.

***

About five minutes before I need to leave for the bus, there is a ring at the doorbell. "I'll answer it." I tell my parents as I stand up from the breakfast table. I hope it's not J.D., if my dad saw me driving away on his motorcycle in person he just may have a heart attack.

I open the door and am greeted my Heather McNamara wearing a yellow sweater tucked into her pleated grey skirt. "Hi there, need a ride to school?" She smiles.

"That would be lovely, let me go grab my book bag and tell my parents." I respond before stepping back inside and gently closing the door. I walk back over to the breakfast table and tell my parents that I'm riding to school with Heather McNamara. After I grab my book bag, my mother walks me to the door to make sure it truly is a Heather.

"Oh good morning Heather, I just wanted to make sure you weren't some mystery boy, right Veronica?" My mother asks, making me blush.

"Thank you mom, I'll see you this afternoon." I say as I step out onto the front porch with Heather.

"Oh, by the way Mrs. Sawyer, Veronica, the other Heathers, and I will be going to Rosie's place after school today if that's okay with you." Heather McNamara tells my mom. I was unaware of those plans until now.

"That's just fine. Goodbye, girls." My mom smiles as she waves at us before closing the front door.

"Uh oh, what was that 'mystery boy' deal about?" Heather asks as we walk over to her car. Luckily, neither of the other Heathers are in the car too.

"I told my mother that after the party I spent the night with Heather Chandler but, through a neighbor, she found out that I actually spent the night with J.D.. I guess that was the embarrassment part of my punishment." I laugh as I sit down in the passenger seat. Heather giggles at the short story as we pull out of my driveway and begin the drive to school.

"Let's go see if the other two are here." Heather McNamara says as we step out of her car. We walk beside one another over to the bench where the Heathers normally sit in the mornings before school. Heather Chandler is sitting there but Heather Duke hasn't arrived yet.

"Good morning, Heather." I smile as Mac and I sit down on the bench.

"Hm, déjà vu." Heather Chandler laughs. "Oh look, here comes Heather." She sighs. I look up to see Heather Duke stepping out of a car with Ram Sweeney. "Ronnie, looks like Heather Duke has a boy toy of her own."

"Wait, are Heather Duke and Ram going steady?" I ask to either Heather who knows the answer.

"I'm not quite sure, but they've been flirting ever since the start of the year." Heather Chandler explains to me. "By the way, Veronica, all four of us are going out to Rosie's Place after school today. Tuesdays are our milkshake days."

"Oh I know, Heather already told me." I respond. Heather Duke and Ram approach our bench and stand beside us since there was no more room.

"Class starts in ten minutes, do you want to go ahead and start walking?" Heather McNamara asks me. I know Heather Chandler and Duke will stay here until they only have two minutes left, so I decide to take up Mac on her offer and begin walking to our classes together.

"Who do you have first period?" Heather asks me as we walk through the front doors of the school.

"Mrs. Stuart, for home ec. She's in 183."

"Excellent, I'm just a few doors down." Heather explains as we walk down the bottom floor main hallway of the school. By one of the side exits, I spot J.D. standing against a wall. We make eye contact and beckons for me to walk over to him as he mouths 'come here'.

"Hey, Heather, I have to go. I'll see you at lunch." I tell Heather. She turns to look at me and, I assume, sees J.D. standing a few feet away.

"Oh, I see. I'll see you later Veronica." She smiles before continuing on her way to class. I cross the hallway and stop to stand beside J.D..

"Hey, is everything actually okay with your mom?" He asks as I lean on one of my shoulders on the wall.

"Yes. She informed me that the day after I spent the night at your house, when you dropped me off at my house, a neighbor saw me being dropped off by some 'boy in a leather jacket on a motorcycle'." I explain, giving air quotes around the description my Mrs. Federicks gave of him. "She wanted to know who I had been with, and I'm really bad at covering up stuff when I've been caught, so I told her your name before going up to my room. A few minutes later she came upstairs and told me that she isn't mad, but she does want to meet you." I explain to J.D..

"Alright, do you want me to come over for dinner some night this week?" He asks casually.

"Yes, of course, but my parents are kind of picky and my mother said that if her and my dad don't like you, or they don't think that you're good for me, I'm not allowed to be around you outside of school anymore, and I don't really like the sound of that." I tell J.D., becoming quite upset about the thought of us not being able to talk anymore. I have developed a small, what one may call a crush on him over the past few days, and with him meeting my parents there is a decent chance for a potential relationship.

"Oh, um, don't worry about it. I'll dress nice, attempt to act respectable, get there on time. Speaking of which, when will this be happening?" J.D. asks.

"Say 5:00 tomorrow, if that works. I'll call you this afternoon to verify." I answer. I look down at my watch and see that I only have three minutes before class starts. "Oh my goodness, I need to be going. Like I said, I'll call you this afternoon,  goodbye." I smile before standing back up straight and walking to first period.


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In this chapter I mention Veronica “setting” her hair, if you don’t know what that is I explain it and other stuff in future chapters on my tumblr @retro_pure_jdonica

"Veronica!" Heather Duke hollers as she sees me walking out of the school building. All three of the Heathers are already standing by Heather McNamara's car. I scurry over to the car and step into the backseat along with Heather Duke. 

"Let's go." Heather McNamara mumbles, partially to herself, as she pulls out of her parking spot and begins the drive to Rosie's. When we arrive at the diner, Heather parks right by the front door. As we walk inside, a bell rings above the door and we go sit down in a large booth.

"Did you guys hear about the Sock Hop here this weekend?" Heather Duke asks the group. We all either say no or shake our heads. "Well this Saturday here at Rosie's they're going to move the booths and the tables to the edges of the room to open up the floor and they're hosting a dance. I think it would be fun to go." Heather Duke explains. I've never been to a Sock Hop outside of school dances so it sounds like a fun event.

"Good job for finding that out, Heather, we'll be here. Mac, can you drive?" Heather Chandler says. This is the first time I've ever heard Heather Chandler say something purely and truly positive to Heather Duke.

"I probably can." Heather McNamara responds as a waitress walks over to us. 

"What'll it be, girls?" She asks as she takes out a notepad and pen from her white apron. We all order our food: vanilla milkshakes for me and Heather McNamara, a double chocolate milkshake for Heather Duke, a strawberry milkshake for Heather Chandler, and an order of fries for us all to share.

Heather Chandler and Heather Duke begin talking about the Sock Hop and what they plan to wear which left me and Mac to talk amongst ourselves. "So, you and J.D. getting closer?" Heather McNamara jokes.

"I guess so. I really like him, but I've never even been on a date with a boy before, I'm not sure what to do." I blush as I converse with Heather.

"Why don't you just make a move already?" Heather McNamara asks.

"Heather, you know the answer to that question already. We're girls, we have to wait for the boys to make the first move." I sigh, rolling my eyes as I fiddle with the napkin holder on the table.

"Yeah, I know." Heather sighs along with me.

"What are you two sulking about over there?" Heather Duke smiles as she looks at me and Heather McNamara.

"Boys." Heather McNamara laughs.

"Speaking of boys, what's going on between you and Ram?" Heather Chandler asks Heather Duke. She blushes and rolls her eyes dramatically wit a smile playing on her lips.

"We've been going pretty steady, but not for a long time." Heather Duke informs us as our waitress walks back over to our table with our milkshakes and fries. She sets our food down on the table and we continue conversing but now with sweet treats.

"What about you, Heather, do you have your eyes on anyone in particular?" I ask Heather Chandler.

"They're all so immature, I'm waiting for them to become men and not boys, also for them to become more attractive." Heather Chandler smiles as she sips on her milkshake. "For that reason I will be going to the Sock Hop with a man who doesn't go to Westerburg."

"Wait, Heather what are you implying?" Heather McNamara asks with a large smile on her face.

"Well if you insist, I've been going steady with a freshman at Remington University." Heather Chandler informs us. I definitely had no idea about this, and by the looks of it, the other two Heathers had no idea either.

"Oh my goodness Heather what's his name?" Heather Duke asks, getting quite excited.

"Tommy Millard."

"Are you two a couple or do you just have your eye on one another?" I question her.

Heather Chandler doesn't respond with words, but instead she lifts her hand to show us, what I assume is Tommy's, school ring. We all lightly gasp at the sight. "Do your parents know about him?" Heather McNamara asks.

"Well of course, we've been going steady long enough that I'm wearing his school ring. Mother and father approved of him a few months ago." Heather Chandler smiles. Before any of the other Heathers have time to say anything else about this boy Heather Chandler has been keeping a secret, Heather begins talking again. "Speaking of approving, Duke I know you're bringing Ram to the Sock Hop and Mac I guess you could talk Kurt, but Veronica will you be bringing that greaser?" Heather Chandler asks me, looking slightly disappointed.

"I was thinking about asking him, why?"

"What do you see in him?" Heather Chandler sighs as she rolls her eyes.

"He's really kind and he looks out for me, he makes sure I'm okay." I shrug, I don't want to get to mushy with them.

"Alright then." Heather Chandler mumbles. We all drink up our milkshakes and snack on the fries. As we eat, I think about how just less than a week ago, Heather Chandler was screaming at me at a party for throwing up after drinking for the first time. I'm not sure if she had gotten over it or somehow forgotten about it, but for the moment we were simply average American teenagers.

Once we finish, we split the check and Heather McNamara drops us all off at our own houses. When I walk in my front door, I hear my mother listening to the radio and cooking so I walk into the kitchen to let her know I'm home.

"Hello Mother." I smile, sitting down at the bar.

"Oh hi Veronica." She replies. "Did you talk to that boy Jason about coming over to meet me and your father?" 

"Yes, I talked to him about it this morning. Would him coming over tomorrow for dinner around five be okay?" I ask her. I am quite nervous about J.D. meeting my parents, he isn't exactly the boy next door type.

"That sounds perfect, I'll tell your father." She says. "Do you have any homework today, Ronnie?"

"A little bit but not too much. I can do it after dinner." I inform her.

"Help me set the table, will you?" My mother asks as she hands me two dishes covered with no doubt delicious food. I carry them into the dining room and set them down. There were already plates and silverware in front of the chairs we use daily, so dinner was ready.

***

"May I be excused?" I ask my father ask I move my napkin from my lap to the table. 

"Of course Veronica, make sure to call Jason and tell him that we're excited to meet him." My father says as I stand up from the table. 

"I will, goodbye." I smile as I walk away. I go up into my room and decide to take a shower before starting on my homework. I sit down at my dressing table and take off my makeup and remove my jewelry before getting into the shower. Once my makeup and jewelry are removed, I lay out a pair of pajamas on my bed to change in to. I remove my clothes and slip into the shower. 

When I'm finished in the shower, I wrap a towel around my self before found back into my room and putting on my pajamas. I sit back down at my dressing table to set my hair, which takes about twenty minutes just to pin it. I decide to attempt to do some homework as I dry my hair under a hood which ends up working. Once my hair is dry, about half of my homework is done. After taking out the pins, combing out my hair, and putting on a setting lotion I decide to take a break from homework and call J.D. to update him on the dinner.


	10. Chapter 10

"Hello J.D., it's Veronica." I smile when I hear J.D. answer the phone.

"Hi, what's going on?" He asks. His voice sounds happy, so I assume he's doing okay. 

"I just wanted to call you to confirm that you can come over tomorrow for dinner. I told my parents 5:00 so you should be here by 4:55." I explain to him, giving a small laugh about the times.

"Noted." He laughs.

"Also, what are you planning on wearing? I'm really sorry but, like I said, they're quite picky." I ask him. I've never seen him not in his leather jacket so I'm not sure what else he would wear.

"What would make them hate me the least?" He questions with a slight laugh laced into his voice.

"My parents are quite old fashioned, but a simple suit and a pair of nice shoes that would be excellent. Does that sound alright?" I suggest. This is a decently important dinner, and him dressing like how I described should be fine.

"That sounds doable." He replies. "So, not five o'clock but four fifty five, wear a casual suit and nice shoes. I think I got it. Goodnight, Ronnie." J.D. says on the other line.

"Goodnight, J.D.." I reply before placing my phone down. I finish up my homework and go downstairs to say goodnight to my parents before finally going to sleep.

***

"That must be Jason, I'll answer it." My father says as he stands up from the couch, fore the doorbell had just been rang. I look down at my wrist watch to check the time. 4:56, good job J.D.. My mother and I stand up from the couch as I hear J.D. and my dad conversing. I see J.D. step inside and he is dressed just as he said he would. I walk over to J.D. and my dad to join the conversation. 

"Veronica, you look wonderful, as do you Mrs. Sawyer." J.D. smiles at me and my mother. We all walk into the dining room and sit down, my mother and father at either end of the table and me and J.D. facing one another, sitting in the middle of the longer sides of the table. We all semi-silently fill our plates and begin chatting once we start eating.

"So Jason, how long have you been living here in Sherwood?" Mother asks J.D.. He's doing quite well so far, he's sitting up straight and hasn't rested his elbows on the table. 

"I just moved here from Kentucky this summer, this will be my first year at Westerburg High." He explains in a happy voice.

"Do you have a job?" My father asks with a small smile on his face. 

"No sir, not at the moment." J.D. responds. I have already gathered that this dinner is just going to be my parents going back and forth asking J.D. questions, and it is quite obvious that J.D. isn't used to this type of formal discussion so I decide to try to help him out.

"You know, J.D.'s dad is an entrepreneur, he has his own construction business." I inform mother and father. I make eye contact with J.D. and he mouths 'thank you'.

"Would that construction company happen to be Big Bud Dean Construction?" Father questions.

"Yes sir, it is." J.D. says.

"Hm, they've been working on a new building just next door to my office." Father tells J.D.. Similar conversation carries on over the next hour- what profession J.D. wishes to obtain, if he plans on going to college and if so where, what classes he's taking in school- until it is time for J.D. to leave. I walk with him out to his motorcycle which was paled in the driveway. 

"Well that was terrifying." J.D. laughs as he sits down on the bike seat.

"Oh you did great, I think they like you." I tell J.D. as he starts up the motorcycle engine. 

"Well that's good because I would be very upset if I wasn't able to see you anymore. Bye, Ronnie." J.D. says, making my cheeks redden, before backing out of the driveway. I wave at him as he flies down the street. I walk back inside to ask mother and father what they thought of J.D..

"So, what do you think of J.D.?" I ask mother and father who both sat on the living room couch.

"Veronica, will you come into the bedroom with me?" My mother asks as she stand up from the couch, making me nervous. I say yes and follow her into the bedroom. "Well, Veronica, I know that you've never dated a boy before this so you're still composing a certain, if you will, taste in boys, but he's not exactly the type your father and I wish for you to be seeing."

"Well I think I like him, he's always very sweet when he talks to me and he makes sure I'm okay." I defend J.D.. I was very concerned that my parents may not like J.D. and those concerns are becoming a reality.

"But, since this is the first time you've brought a boy home to us, we thought we'd allow you to date him. You may quickly decide that you don't enjoy dating a boy like J.D., but you'll never know until you try."

"Okay then, well I'll be up in my room. I need to finish up some homework." I tell them before walking up to my room. I decide to wait about thirty minutes or so before calling J.D. and asking him to join me at the Sock Hop now that my parents have, slightly reluctantly, given me permission to be with him.

In those thirty minutes, I am able to finish a decent amount of the nights homework. I close my books and take a break to call J.D.. I dial his number and after a couple of rings he picks up.

"Hello?" I hear J.D. say on the other line before sniffling, when speaking his voice breaks as if he had been crying. 

"Hey, it's Veronica, is everything alright?" I ask him as I twirl the phone cord around my fingers, a nervous habit of mine.

"Oh, yeah, don't worry about it." He replies, probably unknowingly telling me that something was wrong with him referring to something as 'it'.

"Well, I just wanted to call you and tell you that my parents are going to allow me to see you." I smile, hoping the good news may cheer him up. I decide to omit the more negative side of the story since he sounded slight upset.

"Wait, are you serious?" He questions, suddenly sounding very excited.

"Yes, and on a similar note I was wondering if you would be open to the idea of attending a Sock Hop with me this Saturday at Rosie's Place, the dinner?" I ask J.D.. I understand that me asking him to a dance is a complete overstep as a lady, but I don't want to attend the dance alone. Also he sounded very happy just now when I told him that my parents approve of him, so he may also be happy about the possibility of us going to a dance together.

"I would be incredibly open to that idea, and I would love to go to the Sock Hop with you." J.D. replies. "We can work out the times tomorrow, does that sound alright?"

"That sounds wonderful, goodnight J.D.." I respond. I wait for him to say goodnight before hanging up my phone and he does. I get up from my bed to take off my makeup and change into pajamas before finishing my homework and going to sleep.


	11. Chapter 11

Almost thirty minutes before J.D. said he would pick me up for the Sock Hop, the door bell rings. It can't be J.D., but nonetheless I rush down the stairs and open the door. Looking out the front door, I see all three Heathers standing on the porch in their party dresses.

"Veronica, may we come in?" Heather Chandler asks. I respond 'sure' and they all three step inside.

"Veronica, who is it?" My mother shouts from the couch.

"It's just the Heathers, mother." I reply.

"Oh goodie, is this what your wearing?" Heather Chandler asks as she looks at my light blue plaid patterned dress. I put on a white belt to accentuate my waist right above where my petticoat flares out my dress. I wore a pearl necklace and a pearl broach in my hair, which I had hoped would gain the approval and admiration of a Heather.

"Yes, is it alright?" I ask.

"Yes, it looks quite nice. Well, we better be going. Heather McNamara need to rush us back to our houses before our dates get there. Bye Veronica." Heather Chandler smiles before walking back out of my front door, Heather Duke and Heather McNamara trailing behind her.

"Veronica, come here a moment." My mother requests so I walk into the living room where she is sitting on the couch, sewing up a hole in one of her aprons. "You are going to this dance with Jason, correct?" 

"Yes mother, is that still alright?" I ask, feeling slightly pressured to. I know I shouldn't go to dances or go on dates with boys that mother and father do not approve of, but I really like J.D. and mother and father don't exactly like him that much.

"Yes." She smiles, looking up from her work. I smile back before walking upstairs and into my room. I sit down in my dressing table chair, to prevent wrinkles in my dress that may appear if I were to sit down on my bed, and continue my crocheting to waste time before J.D. arrives.

At 7:55, five minutes before I told J.D. to arrive, I decide to slip on my shoes over my socks and walk downstairs to wait. "You look nice, Veronica." My father compliments me as I walk into the living room.

"Why, thank you." I smile. I fiddle with my purse as I wait for a ring at the door. After a couple minutes, a ringing sound echoes throughout the nearly silent house.

"That must be J.D.." I tell my parents.

"Have fun, Veronica." Mother says as I walk out of the living room. I open the door to see J.D. wearing another casual suit of his.

"Hello." I greet J.D. as I step out on the porch.

"You look absolutely divine." J.D. smiles as he slowly looks up and down, making me blush.

"Thank you." I reply as I close the front door behind me.

"We're going to start having to plan events where we don't have to dress up, I only own two suits." J.D. laughs as we walk down the driveway to his motorbike.

"I know. Trust me, I much prefer you in leather, but I think you may be looked at quite funny if you came to a dance in blue jeans." I say with a giggle as I, with some difficulty in my dress and petticoat, sit down behind J.D. on the bike.

"Well that's definitely a good thing. Hold on tight." J.D. replies before driving off to Rosie's. When we arrive, the Sock Hop is already going strong. The Heather and I decided to come at 7:00 even though the dance starts at 6:30 so that it's not awkwardly lonely. 

J.D. parks in the parking lot and then we enter the diner. We slip off our shoes and place them on one of the multiple tables placed right by the front door with small signs that read 'shoes' sitting on them. Instead of a jukebox, music is coming from a record player with a very large speaker that sits near the back of the restaurant. I almost instantly spot Heather Chandler and her older man, Tommy Miller, dancing near the edges of the floor.

"J.D., have you ever been to a dance before?" I ask him as we walk onto the dance floor. He doesn't exactly seem like the dance crazy type.

"I went to the homecoming dance at my school last year, and by went to I mean I stood in the gymnasium for a few minutes, became uncomfortable, and then left." He responds, causing me to giggle. "But I did watch one whole episode of American Bandstand in preparation for tonight, so I should be alright." J.D. continues before lifting my hand above our heads and spinning me around.

"Well, I think you'll do just fine."

***  
About an hour into the dance, whoever is in charge of music puts on a slower song. All of the dance partners move much closer together, including me and J.D.. I rest my head on his shoulder and he wraps one of his arms most of the way around my back. We sway back and forth for a few minutes until the song ends and is followed by a much more up beat and faster song.

As I straighten back up, I suddenly feel myself become very tired which causes me to yawn. "Are you getting tired?" J.D. asks and I nod. "We can leave soon if you want to." He offers.

"Could we go ahead and leave now?" I ask. He happily responds 'sure' so we step off of the dance floor to go put our shoes back on.

"Is everything okay, or are you simply just tired?" J.D. asks as we walk out the door and over to his motorcycle.

"I'm just tired." I respond as he sits down on his motorcycle.

"Alright then, let's go back to your house." J.D. smiles as I sit down behind him on the bike. I wrap my arms tightly around his torso as he drives out of the diner parking lot and back to my house.

"J.D., may I ask you a question?" I ask J.D. as we walk up to my front door, realizing how vague I'm being as I speak.

"Of course, what is it?" J.D. says as we sit down on my front porch swing. He wears a smile but his eyes show nervousness.

"When I called you earlier this week, just after the diner, I asked you if you were alright and you said to not worry about it. What was wrong?" I question him. I can tell he's getting more nervous because he starts moving his feet, causing us to rock back and forth in the swing. "Y-you don't have to tell me if you don't want to."

"Once I left your house, I was quite scared that your parents wouldn't approve of me and I wouldn't be able to see you anymore. The thought of not being able to see you made me upset too. How you heard me on the phone, my voice was like that because I had been, um, upset." J.D. explains, and I understand that he was hinting around the idea that he had been crying.

"I-I'm so sorry. If there's anything you ever want to talk about, please just call me or come by my house and we can talk." I inform him. I'm not sure what else I can say so I wrap my arms around him in a hug.

"Thank you, Ronnie. I'll call you tomorrow, alright?" J.D. says as we stand up from the porch swing.

"Alright. Goodnight J.D.." I respond as I open the front door and step inside.


	12. Chapter 12

"Hello Veronica, I need an excuse to not be in Biology today." Heather Chandler tells me as she sits down at our lunch table.

"Alright, what do you want it to say, and whose handwriting should this be?" I ask her as I pull out a pencil, my folder of passes, and my notebook from my book bag.

"Have it be in Mrs. Randolph's handwriting. You can make something up about me doing work for the Student Government Association." Heather says. Since its some random teacher, the handwriting isn't intensely important. As long as it's slightly rushed cursive it'll be fine. 

I flip through my folder to see if Mrs. Randolph had ever given me a pass before. Me being in the Student Government Association, I did have a note in her handwriting. "My goodness Veronica, how do you have all of those passes?" Heather Duke asks as she sees me flipping through my folder.

"I'm very active in quite a lot of extra curricular activities, for job purposes, and because of that I miss some classes to do jobs for those activities. So whenever a teacher or sponsor for one of those extra curriculars gives me a pass, I trace over it to give to the teacher whose class I'm missing and keep the original." I explain to them as I begin to forge the note for Heather. I hand her the pass and put my stuff back in my bag.

"Heather will miss the first half of biology to work on the sophomore homecoming float. Signed, Mrs. Randolph." Heather reads the note aloud. "Ronnie, only the first half? Why didn't you write the whole period?"

"Because teachers normally get mad if you miss a large portion of their class. If you miss all of it, they'll no doubt go to the teacher who gave you the pass and complain to them. Now if your biology teacher went to Mrs. Randolph and complained about her letting you miss class, Mrs. Randolph would say that she never wrote you the pass, I assume you can put together the pieces as to why that's bad." I inform Heather.

"Oh, okay." Heather Chandler sighs. "Are you guys doing anything this afternoon?" She asks the group. We all shake our heads no. "Well then, we should go shopping."

"I assume I'll be driving?" Heather McNamara says.

"If you would be so kind as to." Heather Chandler smiles. "Does shopping sound okay to you two?"

"Yes." Heather Duke and I say in unison.

"Alright then, it's a trip."

***

"I need a new pair of heels." Heather Chandler sighs as we walk into a shoe store.

"Heather, don't you already have like five pairs of heels?" I laugh.

"Well yeah, but I want a new pair." She responds with a smile. We all follow her over to the heels, particularly the red heels, to give our input on all of the shoes she tries on. Heather settles on a bright red pair of kitten heels with small white bows on the ankles.

After that we all go into a clothing store and float around for a few minutes. Heather Duke and Heather Chandler gravitated to some party dresses while Heather McNamara and I looked at sweaters. None of us ended up buying any clothing, but the trip was fun overall. Heather McNamara drives us all back to our houses and I arrive on perfect time for dinner. After dinner, I quickly finish my homework, take off my makeup, take a shower, set my hair, and then finally go to bed at the end of the busy day.

***

On the very next day, Tuesday, the Heathers and I drive over to Rosie's Place after school. We go sit down in a booth and order our regular milkshakes and fries.

"Oh, Veronica, I've been meaning to ask you about this." Heather Duke begins. "Since Mac will be busy, I was wondering if you could pretty please be Kurt's date and double with Ram and I at the drive in on Friday night."

"Heather, I think J.D. and I have something going on." I reply with a light sigh and a frown. I have no interest in a guy like Kurt anyways.

"Please put Billy the Kid on hold for one night, I'll be your best friend." Heather smiles.

"Alright, but it's not a date, I'm simply going there to provide company, make sure Kurt knows that." I inform her in a serious tone. I'll make sure to tell J.D. about this so he knows in not a date, just incase he hears about it and thinks I'm not interested in him anymore.

"Thank you so much, Ronnie." Heather Duke says. "Oh, our food is here."

The waitress sets down all of our drinks and our fries on the table and we begin to eat away, stopping every once in a while to discuss classes, boys, and clothes. Once we are all finished with our drinks, we split the check and Heather McNamara drives us all back to our houses.

"Hello?" I shout as I walk into my house.

"Ah, Veronica, you're home." Mother replies as she walks into the foyer where I stand to hug me. "Any homework today?"

"Yes, but just one assignment and its in Trigonometry which is by best subject as of recent so it won't take long." I tell her before walking up the stairs and into my room. I get started on the assignment immediately because I need to do some ironing.

I finish all of my homework in about thirty minutes but before I can start my ironing, mother calls me down for dinner. I walk down the stairs and into the dining room where the table is already set. I sit down and mother, father, and a I begin to eat our dinner. 

"Is it okay if I go to the drive in with Heather Duke and a couple boys this Saturday?" I ask openly for either of my parents to respond. 

"Will Jason be there?" Mother asks in a negative tone. 

"No ma'am, but this isn't a date." I inform her. She looks at father and nods her head.

"That's fine with us, Veronica." Father says. We finish the rest of the meal with small conversations arising every few minutes. When everyone is done eating I get permission to be excused so I go upstairs to begin my ironing. 

When I'm almost done, the telephone begins to ring. I'm not sure if it's for me, since I don't know of anyone who would be calling me right now, but I answer it anyways. "Hello?" I say as I place the phone by my ear.

"Hi Ronnie, it's J.D.." J.D. says on the other line, I assume recognizing my voice.

"Hello, how are you?" I ask him as I sit down on my bed.

"Good, good. Are you busy right now?" He questions. I tell him that I'm not really and he asks if he could pick me up in about half an hour and bring me back to his house to watch some new tv show.

"Oh good, I was needing to talk to you about something too. I'll have to ask my mother, let me call you back in a few minutes." I respond. He says goodbye, and so do I before hanging up. I unplug the iron before walking downstairs and into the master bedroom to ask about going to J.D.'s house.


	13. Chapter 13

"Mother, father." I smile as I greet them. "J.D. just called me and asked if he could come pick me up in half an hour and go back to his house to watch a new television show, could I?"

"When will you be back?" Father asks. I look at their bedside clock and see that it's about 5:20

"Umm, I should be back by around 7:00, maybe 7:30." I respond.

"That's alright, Veronica." Mother responds with slight reluctance in her voice.

"Thank you, goodbye." I say before stepping out of their bedroom and going back up to mine. I sit down on my bed and call J.D.. Instead of J.D. answering, an older man does. 

"Hello?" Says the unfamiliar voice, but I simply assume that it's J.D.'s father. 

"Hello, is Jason home?" I ask. The voice says 'yes, just a minute' and I wait for J.D. to pick up on the line.

"Hello?" I hear J.D. say as he picks up.

"Hi, it's Veronica again. I just asked my mother about me coming over and she said its okay. Will you be here around 5:50?" 

"Yes, I'll see you then. Goodbye, Ronnie." J.D. says. I say goodbye too before placing my phone back down. I plug in the iron again and attempt to finish my ironing rather quickly, which I do. I hang up my freshly ironed skirts in my closet and lay down on my bed. I glance over at my clock and see that it's only 5:35. I decide to grab my biology notebook from my book bag and study for an upcoming test next week.

After what feels like no time, the door bell rings. I slip on my saddle shoes and rush down the stairs to answer the door. "Bye!" I shout to my mother and father before opening the door to be greeted by J.D.. "Hello." I smile as I step out onto the front porch.

"Hi, you ready?" He asks and I nod in response. We walk down to his motorbike and hop on. I wrap my arms around his torso before he begins driving back to his house. 

When we arrive we both get off of the bike and walk up to his front door. "So, what is this new show you're wanting to watch together?" I ask him as he opens the door.

"It's called The Twilight Zone. What I've gathered from the trailer is that it's kind of a science fiction type of show." He explains as we walk into his house and into the living room. "What, uh, what was it you wanted to talk about?" He asks, referencing when I said I needed to speak to him about something.

"Well, Heather Duke has asked me to double with her and Ram at the drive in this Friday, me going with Kurt." I begin to tell him. As I'm speaking I see him swallow and his face go slightly white. "But don't worry, I told Heather I would only go if she made it very clear that this is not a date, I'm simply providing company." I finish and the air between us goes silent. 

"Another Heather, huh." J.D. smiles, breaking the awkward silence.

"Yes." I laugh back.

"Alright, thank you for telling me." He finishes the conversation. He walks over to the tv, turns it on, and finds the channel The Twilight Zone is going to air on. "It'll be on in a couple minutes." J.D. says as he looks at his watch. We both sit down on the couch rather close, and I rest my head on his shoulder.

A few minutes later, the show begins. The show begins and it becomes clear that it is quite interesting and has many levels to it. "I believe the goal of this show is to make us question everything around us." I laugh as a commercial begins, and J.D. laughs at my comment too. 

The show starts up again after the commercial and the episode soon finishes. "Well, what did you think?" J.D. asks me.

"My observation about questioning everything still stands, possibly even stronger now, but it was very entertaining and interesting." I respond. "Do you have any sodas?" I ask as I sit up on the couch. 

"Yes, in the fridge. Come with me and I'll open one for you." J.D. responds so we both stand up from the couch and walk into the kitchen. He opens the refrigerator and grabs a Coca Cola and opens it with the bottle opener magnet that was stuck onto the door of the refrigerator.

"Thank you." I smile as J.D. hands me the drink and walks over to the trash can to throw away the soda cap. After he throws it away, I notice him stand in place looking downwards for an oddly long amount of time. "Is everything alright, J.D.?" I ask as I sit my drink on the counter

"Uh, Ronnie?" He stutters as he walks back over to me.

"Yes?" I ask. Instead of responding, he wraps his hands around my waist to pull me close to him as he presses his lips against mine. For a second I'm slightly shocked, but then I raise my hands and run my fingers through his hair. Suddenly, I hear a door inside of the house open and we quickly pull away. I turn around to face the direction the sound of the door opening came from and see a middle aged man walk into the kitchen, who, I assume, is J.D.'s father.

The man looks at me and laughs lightly. "So, were you Jason's little house guest a few nights ago or was that another girl?" The man asks, shocking me.

"Pardon me?" I ask, not quite knowing how to respond to such an absurd question. 

"What, you think I didn't hear you sneak in?" J.D.'s dad smiles disgustingly.

"Dad!" J.D. snaps, no doubt shocked by his father's comment too. His dad begins to walk over to us but then continues going right past us to the fridge, where he removes a beer and loudly cracks it open.

"I think I'll be going now. J.D. could I have a ride?" I ask J.D. rather quietly.

"Of course, let's go." J.D. says, placing his hand on my back and leading me out of his front door. "Veronica, I-I'm so sorry about him." J.D. apologies as we stand on his front porch.

"Oh no, it's not at all your fault." I respond with an incredibly forced small smile. "I'm sorry he's like that, that isn't how father's should talk to, or even around, their sons."

"Oh, it's not that big of a deal." J.D. shrugs.

"Does your mother know he talks like that to you?" I ask him.

"My mom, um, she, she... You know, it doesn't really matter." He stutters intensely. I know I probably shouldn't, but I want to make sure J.D. is treated nicely at home, so I persist.

"Well J.D., it kind of does matter. Seriously, does she know about it?" I ask again.

"Veronica, my mom has passed away." J.D. tells me as he clenches his fists. I don't know how to react, I've never had somebody tell me that one of their parents are dead.

"J.D., I-I'm so sorry." I reply as I wrap my arms around him in a hug. He begins to speak as he hugs me back.

"It's alright, it happened a while ago." He informs me. After a few seconds we pull apart from the hug. "I guess I should be driving you home, huh." J.D. fake laughs as he sniffles.

"I suppose." I respond as we begin to walk to his bike. He drives me back home and then walks me up to the front door. "Goodnight, J.D.. I'll see you tomorrow at school."

"Goodnight, Veronica." J.D. responds before giving me a goodnight kiss. I smile after he pulls away and walks back to his motorcycle. I open the front door and walk inside. I look down at my wrist watch and see that it is only 6:45. 

I walk into the living room and see father sitting on the couch reading a book. "Hello father, I'm back home." I say to him before going into the kitchen and getting a glass of water. I take my glass back up to my bedroom and decide to spend the rest of my night reading so I skim through my bookshelves to find something that sparks my interest. I find a book and bring it back to my bed where I lay down and read away.

Majority of my attempts to stay focused on the book fail, fore I’m continuously distracted by the thought of how difficult J.D.’s life must have been. His mother died when he was young and his father treats him terribly. I’ve never had a friend who has had a life as emotionally difficult as that, but I truly hope that I am able to make J.D.’s life at least a little bit better.


	14. Chapter 14

Friday comes and as I walk into the lunch room and see Heather Duke, I am reminded of our plans for tonight. I am absolutely filled with dread at the thought of the double "date" tonight with Heather Duke, Kurt, and Ram. I sit down at the table with my tray and wait for one of the Heathers to spark up a conversation, which Heather Chandler soon does.

"What does myriad mean?" Heather Chandler sighs as she looks up from her English homework.

"Numerous." I respond quickly.

"Huh?" Heather asks again, not understanding my answer.

"Like, lots of something." I explain in slightly more simplistic vocabulary.

"Oh, thanks Ronnie." Heather says as she begins to scribble down my answer to her question.

"So, Veronica, about tonight..." Heather Duke begins. I audibly sigh, wanting her to know that I still don't want to go on this "date". "Ram is driving and we'll pick you up around 7:00, does that sound alright?" 

"I guess. Have you talked to Kurt and told him that this is not a date, I am not going on a date with Kurt Kelly." I say, stressing the importance that she has told Kurt my stance on this situation.

"Yes, of course." Heather Duke replies. She looks like she's telling the truth and I don't see any reason for her to not tell Kurt that this isn't a date, so I believe her.

"What does J.D. think about this? I thought you two we're into one another." Heather McNamara asks me. I know that since its coming from Mac its with genuine concern, so I answer nicely.

"I talked to him about it on Tuesday, and stressed to him that it wasn't a date. He simply thanked me for telling him, he didn't seem upset or anything." I explain. Mac nods and goes back to eating her lunch. I do the same. 

The rest of the day, at least up until 7:00, goes by far too fast. J.D. called me around 6:00 to make sure I was doing alright, something that has become a daily thing, and to ask if I was still going to the drive in. I told him that sadly I was, but reminded him that it wasn't a date.

I kept on the same sweater and skirt I wore to school to wear to the drive in, in fact the only difference between what I wore to school versus what I'm going to wear to the drive in is that I now have a purse. I look over at my bedside clock to discover that it is already 7:00. I slide on my shoes and walk down the stairs to wait for Ram to arrive. 

At around 7:05 there is a knock at the door. I walk over to the door and swing it open to see Heather Duke standing on my front porch. "Are you ready?" She asks.

"I suppose." I sigh as I follow her over to Ram's car. She walks over to the passenger door so I sit down in the back next to Kurt.

"Hello Veronica, you look lovely." Kurt smiles as I sit down beside him, making me want to vomit.

"Thank you." I mutter uncomfortably in response. As we travel to the drive in, I pay extra attention to the route in case I need to escape back home by foot. The drive in was quite a distance from my house, but by insane luck it was only about a mile from J.D.'s neighborhood.

Ram pays for all of us and then goes to park. "Do you ladies want any drinks?" Kurt asks. Before Heather or I could respond, Ram begins speaking.

"That won't be necessary, I already brought refreshments." Ram laughs as he pulls a bottle of alcohol out from the floor board in front of him.

"Alright." Kurt smiles as Ram takes a huge sip of the drink. He's not reacting to it as if it were vodka, so I'm not quite sure what it is. Ram passes it to Heather, who then passes it to Kurt. After Kurt takes his drink he goes to hand the bottle to me.

"I don't want any." I reply.

"Oh come on Veronica, it's fun." He laughs.

"I said I don't want any." I snap at him. He just smiles and rolls his eyes before passing the bottle back to Ram. They rotate around until the bottle is empty and by then they are all, except for Ram who only drank twice so he could still somewhat drive them home, sufficiently tipsy. Kurt, who drank the most, was border lining drunkenness.

To my disgust, Heather and Ram scooted closer together in the front seats of the car and began making out. Part of my disgust came from the inevitable fact that, since Ram was getting a girl, Kurt was going to start making moves on me. 

As I'm looking out the car door window, attempting to mentally remove myself from the situation, I feel a hand ride up my right leg, sliding my skirt upwards with it. I violently turn my head around to see that the hand belonged to, with no surprise, Kurt. I smacked his hand away from me. "Come on, Veronica." Kurt drunkenly smiles. 

"No." I reply sharply. I feel my heart begin to beat faster as I become scared. I'm in a car with a drunk, very strong, teenage boy who is possibly attempting to take advantage of me. Suddenly, Kurt leans over on top of me, grabbing my shoulders to make it difficult to move, and forces his lips onto mine. "Get off of me!" I scream as I shove him away, at first with slightly difficulty. Ram and Heather are too busy to care, I have to deal with Kurt on my own. After I get Kurt off of me, I open the car door and climb out before hurriedly walking out of the drive in. As I'm leaving, I feel myself begin to cry. My stomach hurts as if I were about to throw up, and I feel so disgusting in a way that makes me want to crawl out of my own skin.


	15. Chapter 15

I try to pull myself back together and attempt to mentally reverse the list of roads we drove down to get to the drive in once we passed J.D.'s neighborhood and the directions in which we turned onto the roads. It takes about twenty minutes, in which I start and stop crying about two more times, but I eventually reach the entrance to J.D.'s neighborhood. I speed walk towards his house and start to smile when I see his motorcycle parked in his driveway. I run up to the front door of his house and ring the doorbell.

A few seconds later the door opens and I am met by J.D.. "Veronica, what happened?" J.D. asks with great concern, I guess it's obvious that I've been crying.

"I-I'm sorry I just needed a place-I just..." I struggle to form a sentence, as I don't fully know what I came here for, other than an escape from the hell that was Ram's car.

"No, no don't apologize." J.D. comforts me, stepping out onto the porch and wrapping his arms around me. I hug him back and rest my head on his shoulder. "Here, come inside." He says as he gently pulls away from the hug and leads me inside to his bedroom. I sit down on his bed and wipe away any mascara tear stains that may be on my cheeks. "What happened?" J.D. asks as he sits down next to me on the bed.

"Well, at the drive in, Ram pulled out a bottle of alcohol and began passing it around the car. Kurt handed it to me to drink, but I refused so Heather, Ram, and Kurt passed the bottle around amongst themselves. To my demise, Kurt became the most intoxicated out of the lot. When I was looking out the window, Kurt put his hand on my leg and started to pull up my skirt. I slapped his hand away from me, but then he got on top of me and started kissing-" I explain but before I can finish I start to cry again. J.D. wraps his arms around me again and I rest my head on his chest as I cry. I feel him begin to rock me back and forth slightly as he plants a kiss on my forehead, making me feel safe.

"I'm so sorry Veronica, I'm sorry he would hurt you like that. Do you want me to take you home?" He asks as I sit back up straight, having finished crying. 

"It would be wonderful if you could." I smile loosely. He stands back up, as do I, and we walk back outside. We get onto his motorbike and he drives me back home. Once we get to my house, he parks in the road and walks me to my front door.

"Hey, will you be okay?" J.D. asks as we stand on the porch, making me turn to face him.

"Yes." I reply. We maintain eye contact without speaking for a few moments before he leans down and kisses me. I pull away after a couple seconds and go to open the door but it's locked. I sigh and ring the doorbell. 

"Call me anytime tonight if you need anything, okay?" J.D. tells me and I nod, gladly accepting the offer. My mother unlocks and opens the door. When she does, her eyes immediately go to J.D..

"Veronica, why is J.D. here?" Mother asks in a sharp tone.

"Mother, he-" I begin to speak but she cuts me off.

"You said you weren't going to be with him tonight! Ha-have you been crying?" She snaps. I guess my eyes were still slightly red. I quickly step inside and close the door to get her away from J.D.. "Veronica Sawyer, you lied to me! See I told you that boy was no good, and now he has you crying." She yells at me, close enough to the door that J.D. could no doubt hear her.

"I wasn't with him until about ten minutes ago, and he wasn't the one who made me start crying. I was at the drive in with Heather, Ram, and Kurt but then..." I trail off.

"Well what happened?" Mother asks, still in a sharp tone.

"Kurt forced himself onto me and started trying to pull my skirt up. I ran out of the drive in and went to J.D.'s house, and he drove me home since it was too far a walk from the drive in to back here." I quickly explain, knowing that if I don't just spit it out I'll never fully say it. I see mother's face quickly change from being enraged to empathetic in nearly ten seconds.

"Oh my goodness, Veronica, I-I'm so sorry for raising my voice." Mother apologizes as she hugs me. 

"It's alright. I'm just- I'm going to go lay down now." I mumble as I pull away. I walk upstairs, take off my remaining makeup, change into pajamas, and sit down on my bed.


	16. Chapter 16

Even after taking off my makeup and changing into pajamas, I still wait about ten minutes before calling J.D.. I know he only said to call him if I need anything, but I know he will be very concerned if he doesn't hear from me after witnessing that argument between mother and I erupt.

After those ten minutes go by, I dial J.D.'s number and place the phone to my ear. I silently pray that J.D. picks up and not his dad, at least not after that conversation in the kitchen at J.D.'s house. 

"Hello?" I hear J.D. say on the other line.

"Oh, hi, it's Veronica. I thought that what you saw, or well heard, may have concerned you so I just wanted to call and tell you that everything is fine with my mother." I attempt to explain, not quite knowing how to phrase what I'm trying to say.

"Thank you, I was going to call and check up in a few minutes anyways. Di-did you tell her what happened, uh, with Kurt?" J.D. asks. It's very obvious that he's attempting to be caring and concerned but he's not really used to it.

"Yes." I respond softly.

"And, if you don't mind me asking, why was your mom so upset that you were with me?" He questions, stuttering slightly again.

"I'm sorry, I hate to have to tell you this, but my mother and father aren't, uh, exactly the biggest fans of you. Mother said you're not exactly the type of boy she and father imagined me dating. They're okay with me seeing you, but earlier this week I had told her that I wouldn't be with you tonight." I inform him. It makes me sad to think about the fact that mother and father don't like J.D..

"I figured." J.D. laughs awkwardly.

"Don't worry, I'm still able to see you, it just may be slightly limited. Or I could tell my parents that I'm going to a Heathers house's when I visit you, but next time have you drop me off not right in front of my house." I suggest, giggling lightly as I think back to the small quarrel mother and I got into after Mrs. Fredricks first told her about J.D..

"Alright. Goodnight Ronnie." J.D. responds. Although I can't see him, I can practically hear him smiling too on the phone. I say goodnight too before hanging up the phone. A few minutes later, there is a knock at my bedroom door.

"Come in." I tell whoever is on the other side of the door. The door handle twists and in walks mother. After the conversation we had downstairs, there are about twenty things she could be coming to talk to me about. 

"Veronica, I wanted to apologize again about raising my voice at you earlier. You've had a terrible night, do you want to talk about what happened at the drive in?" Mother asks, her voice very calm, almost comforting as she sits down next to me on my bed.

"No, I don't want to talk about it and I don't want anybody knowing." I answer her. What happened between Kurt and I is a very personal and touchy subject, and I do not wish to think about any more than necessary.

"Alright, then. I won't even tell father, unless you want me to." She says. I understand that she is saying the second half of her sentence as a question, which I shake my head no in response to. I don't want anybody else knowing, not even father. "Okay, I'll leave you be." Mother says as she stands up from my bed and walks back out of my room.

I pull my diary out from a drawer of my nightstand and write down the many events of the night. When I'm done, I place the half empty notebook back into its drawer, along with my pencil, and turn out my lamp light. I lay my covers over me and lay my head down on the pillow before attempting to fall asleep.

***

I wake up the next morning to the familiar sound of someone knocking at my door. "Yes?" I respond in a croaky voice.

"I'm making my breakfast, you should start getting dressed." Mother says as she pokes her head into my room for a few seconds. I sit up on my bed and run my fingers through my messy hair. I turn on my bedside radio for background noise to help wake me up as I walk over to my sink to brush my teeth. After doing so, I sit down at my dressing table to brush out my hair. Not having any plans for the day, I simply put on a blouse and a pair of capri pants before walking downstairs and into the kitchen.

"Veronica, would you go get your father from out back?" Mother asks as she sets three plates full of eggs, toast, and bacon down on the breakfast table, alongside the jars of jam and syrup in the middle of the table. 

"Of course." I reply as I walk through the back door and down to the white painted metal garden table where father sat, smoking a cigarette as he read the newspaper. "Father, breakfast is ready." 

"Thank you Veronica, tell your mother I'll be right there." Father smiles at me before going back to his reading. I nod and walk back inside.

"He's coming." I tell mother as she unties her apron.

"Are you alright this morning?" Mother asks me as we sit down at the breakfast table, obviously thinking about the events of the previous night.

"Yes ma'am." I reply in a soft voice, looking down at my lap. I hear a door open and turn around to see father walk inside. 

"Good morning, ladies." He smiles as he sits down beside me and mother at the table. We eat our breakfast while discussing our lives, but the conversation was sustained mainly by mother and father, seeing as I wasn't exactly myself yet for two reasons; it simply being so early in the morning and me not fully over what happened between Kurt and I last night. 

I ask to be excused once everyone has finished their meals and return to my room upstairs. I still don't have any plans for the day, nor much homework, so I decide to entertain myself by reading a book, a task that I continue for almost an hour before there is a knock at my door. "Come in." I say to whomever is outside of the door.

"Hello Veronica. Your father has just left to go golfing with some of his work friends and I don't have any tasks at the moment. Would you care to entertain me with a few hands of Gin Rummy?" Mother asks as she steps into my room.

"Of course." I smile as I put a bookmark on my current page before placing the book down on my bed and following mother downstairs, back to the now clean breakfast table. After a couple rounds, mother and I rotating the position of dealer, the phone begins to ring. "I'll answer it." I say as I stand up from the table, placing my cards face down on the table. I walk over to the phone in the living room and lift the phone to place it by my ear. "Hello?" I ask.

"Hi Veronica, it's J.D.." J.D. replies.

"Oh, hello J.D., how are you?" I question him. I look over at mother to see her reaction to me on the phone with J.D., to see if she has kept her opinion of J.D. or if it has been slightly altered after him providing sanctuary to me last night. Based on her facial expression, she has maintained her disliking of him.

"I'm doing well, I was calling to ask if you were okay." He explains, indirectly asking me if I was alright. 

"Oh, yes, I'm doing fine." I smile.

"Good. Uh, I was wondering, if you are busy today, if you would like to come over to my house to watch tv, maybe go to some diner for lunch?" He suggest, making me smile even more.

"That sounds lovely. I'm with my mother right now, let me ask her if they alright." I respond. I lower the phone from my ear and look over at mother. "Would it be alright if I went over to Jason's house later today and we go out for lunch?" I ask mother.

"I suppose." She sighs as she looks over her cards in her hand. Her answer so quite clearly a pity offer; her attempt to make up for what happened to me last night. The fact that my time seeing J.D. with a parents knowing permission is dwindling makes me suddenly feel nervous and upset.

"That's alright with mother. Do you know when you'll be here?" I ask J.D. as I raise the phone to my ear once more.

"Let's say an hour." J.D. replies. 

"Wonderful, goodbye J.D.." I say. I wait for him to say goodbye too before hanging up the phone. 

"You're still talking to that boy?" Mother asks as I sit back down at the table, picking up my three cards- a six and seven of hearts, and a two of diamonds- as opposed to mother seven cards she still possessed from when the round began.

"Yes, is that okay?" I reply as mother lays down an eight of hearts into the discard pile.

"I don't see you getting anywhere with a boy like that, Veronica." Mother snaps as I pick up her eight from the pile.

"Well I do." I respond very passive aggressively as I lay down my six, seven, and eight of hearts in front of me and snap the two of diamonds down on the discard pile. "Rummy."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shitty foreshadowing™


	17. Chapter 17

I stand up from the table and, without pushing my chair back in, walk upstairs to my room. Sighing, I lay down on my bed and continue to read my book. Not too long after returning upstairs, I look over to my clock to see that it's already 10:50, and J.D. will be here in only ten minutes. Apparently I had become engulfed into my book and lost track of time. 

I jump up from my bed and rush into my closet to put on a grey skirt, a blue sweater, and a thin black belt. I sit down in front of my dressing table to brush my hair again, put in my pearl earrings, and apply mascara and lipstick. Just as I'm slipping on my flats, the doorbell rings. I snatch my purse from atop my dresser and hurry down the stairs to answer the door before mother could. 

I open the door to see J.D. standing outside in his typical gray shirt, leather jacket, denim jeans, and converse high tops. "Hi, Veronica." J.D. smiles as he, per usual, looks me up and down, making me blush.

"Hello. So, are we going to your house?" I ask as I step outside alongside him. 

"Yes." J.D. responds as we walk over to his motorbike. 

"Is your father home?" I laugh, joking about the last and only time I had encountered J.D.'s father.

"Not to my knowledge." J.D. says as we climb onto his motorcycle. "You ready?" He asks as I cling my arms around his torso.

"Yes." I reply as he starts the engine in preparation for us to zoom off to his house. When we arrive, there is no white van in the driveway of J.D.'s house so I assume that we are home alone.

"Would you like anything to drink?" J.D. asks as we walk into his house.

"I'm fine, thank you." I smile as I sit down on his couch. J.D. walks up to the tv, turns it on, and begins to flip through channels. He eventually finds one playing an episode of Leave it to Beaver.

"Is this alright?" J.D. asks as he turns to me. I nod and he walks over to the couch and sits down next to me, wrapping his arm around my shoulders.

The channel was playing two episodes back to back, each a half an hour long, so once we finished watching the show it was around noon. "Do you want to go get lunch now?" J.D. asks as the final episode ends.

"That sounds lovely." I smile as we stand up from the couch.

"Is Rosie's Place okay?" J.D. questions me as we walk out of the front door and down to his motorcycle.

"Yes." I respond. We get onto his bike and he begins to drive us away to Rosie's. When we arrive, he helps be off of the motorcycle before we walk inside and sit down at the bar in front off all the drunk machines and ice creams. A waiter comes up to us and asks us for our orders. I get a vanilla milkshake, J.D. gets a Coca Cola, and we both order our own hamburgers.

"Um, Veronica, is everything still alright? You know, after what Kurt did yesterday?" J.D. asks me, keeping his voice rather low.

"Yes, thank you for asking." I nod in response as I smile loosely. We maintain a conversation for about the next fifteen minutes as we eat our food, chittering back and forth about school, life at home, the Heathers, and everyone in a while J.D. tells me a small story about his life before he moved to Sherwood.

"So, the homecoming dance is coming up this weekend..." J.D. begins and my heart starts beating quickly, I had been hoping he would ask me and I think he may. "I was wondering if you would like to be my date to it?"

"Of course." I smile before leaning forward and kissing him on the cheek. I pull away and begin to think about what mother's reaction to this will be. I decide to hold off on telling her for a little while. We finish eating and then J.D. drives me home. "I guess I'll see you on Monday." I say to J.D., turning around to face him as we step onto my front porch.

"I guess so." J.D. smiles back. We keep direct eye contact with me for a few seconds until I step forward and wrap my hand around the back of his neck as I press my lips against his. He raises his hands and places them on my small of my back, his thumbs curling around to my waist. After a couple seconds I pull away from him. "Goodbye, Ronnie."

"Goodbye, J.D.." I reply before turning around and walking back inside of my house.


	18. Chapter 18

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cutesy cutesy cutesy jdonica fluff

"How are you getting home today?" J.D. asks me as we walk down the crowded halls of Westerburg high at the end of a far too long Monday.

"The bus, it's how I always get home." I tell him.

"Well why don't you start riding with me. It'll be much quicker, less crowded too." J.D. laughs as we walk out of the front doors.

"Alright then, but I don't think mother will like it too much." I smile as we walk past the buses and into the parking lot.

"Do you mind if we make one stop first?" J.D. asks, I shake my head no before we get onto his motorbike. Unsurprisingly, the one stop ends up being the local 7-eleven. "Would you like another cherry slushie?" He questions as we climb off of his motorcycle.

"I would love one." I smile as we walk into the front doors of the store. He buys a cherry slushie for me and a coke slushie for himself and we take them outside with us to drink in front of the store.

"So, anything upsetting going on with the Heathers?" J.D. asks me as he leans against the concrete brick walls of the building.

"Nothing upsetting, but I'm afraid that homecoming may make everything semi hectic in the group." I roll my eyes. "By the way, while we're on the subject, I assume I will be getting your boutonnière and you will be getting my corsage for the dance?"

"If that's how these things normally work." J.D., slightly awkwardly, laughs in response. We talk back and forth until both of us are done with our drinks. When we are, we throw away the cups and get back onto his bike. Right before we drive away, I check my watch and see that it's already 4:00, so mother may be slightly concerned.

We arrive at my house very quickly and J.D, walks me up to the front door. "Um, Veronica, before you leave could we talk about something?" J.D. asks me, which makes me worry, but I try to conceal it.

"Sure, let's sit down." I say as I sit on the porch bench, J.D. does too.

"I wanted to ask you if you would like to go steady." J.D. tells me. I feel my heart start beating very quickly, J.D. is the only boy I've ever even gone on a date with and now we may be going steady. It's not that I'm opposed to the idea, I'm quite open to it actually, it's just that I'm nervous about it and scared as to how mother will react to it.

"As in being exclusive to one another?" I ask him for clarification, and he nods. I look down in my lap and contemplate what us going steady would be like. I wouldn't be worried about J.D. seeing other girls, and he wouldn't be worried about me seeing other boys. It would be very nice to know I constantly have someone who cares about me, and I won't worry about not having any plans and being home alone on a Friday night because I know there is someone who will ask me on a date. The more I think about it, the more I realize J.D. and I were pretty much already acting as if we were going steady. After thinking about it, I look back up at J.D. and begin to smile. "I would love that." I reply.

J.D. starts to smile too before quickly and slightly roughly pulling me close to him and kissing me. I raise my hands and place them on his chest to gently begin to push him away from me, fore this was more than I was used to. "I'm normally home about fifteen minutes before now, I think my mother may be getting worried." I laugh as I stand up from the bench, J.D. following my actions.

"I suppose you better be getting inside. I'll see you tomorrow, Veronica." J.D. replies. I say goodbye before opening the door and walking inside the house. I trail into the kitchen, where I find mother cooking dinner quickly before father gets home.

"Veronica, where have you been?" Mother asks me as she sees me walk into the kitchen. I could lie and say that I was with a girlfriend of mine, but I decide to tell the truth and see if she has anything new to say about J.D..

"Oh, I rode home with J.D. and we had stopped at 7-eleven to get drinks." I inform her.

"Hmm." She sighs with a neutral look on her face. I decide to leave the news about J.D. and I going steady for another day, seen as she stills seems to not think very positively of him.

***

"So, Veronica, do you have a date for homecoming or are you going alone?" Heather Chandler asks me as we walk into Rosie's.

"I do have a date, J.D. asked me yesterday." I inform her and the other two Heathers as we sit down in a large booth.

"What about you, Mac?" Heather Chandler asks Heather McNamara. I assume Heather Chandler will be going with Tommy Millard, and Heather Duke with Ram. I hope Heather McNamara isn't going with Kurt, I didn't tell her about what he did to me, but I don't want what happened to me to happen to her so I may have to warn her. I don't know if Heather Duke even saw what went down in the back seat of Ram's car, but if she did she may not have remember it the morning after drinking.

"Well if you insist, Doug Hilton asked me after school yesterday, and I said yes." Heather McNamara smiles. I don't recall ever having spoken to Doug Hilton, but I know who he is. 

"Have any of you guys gotten your dresses yet?" Heather Duke asks us, we all shake our heads no. 

"Well then, why don't we go dress shopping tomorrow?" Heather Chandler suggests. We all agree and Mac kindly offers to drive us to the mall to get out dresses. We spend the next hour or so sitting in our booth, drinking milkshakes, and talking about school, clothes, boys, and the like before we all agree that it is time to go back to our houses.


	19. Chapter 19

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Light abuse warning

"Veronica, you're home." Mother smiles as she ties an apron around her waist right after I walk into the kitchen, having returned from Rosie's. "Why don't you wash your hands and you can help me bake." 

"Of course." I reply as I set my backpack down on the breakfast table. I wash my hands in the kitchen sink and then begin to retrieve items from the pantry as she reads them off of the recipe.

"You know, I was watching this show on the television today about teenagers dating." Mother says, starting up a conversation that will no doubt involve J.D. and I know I will not enjoy. "And there was this girl who had been going on many dates with this one boy. Her mother came into her bedroom to talk to her about it, and her mother said that she didn't think the boy was the right one for her. Do you know what the girl's immediate response to that was?" 

"No I don't, what was it?" I ask through partially gritted teeth as I get the electric mixer out of a cupboard and set it down on the counter. 

"She said 'okay mother, if you don't like him then I won't see him anymore'. Isn't that funny, Veronica?" Mother asks. I take a deep breath and try to not say anything disrespectful. "Veronica, I don't want you seeing Jason anymore." She finishes, her words almost making me tear up. 

"I'm sorry, mother, but J.D. and I have talked about it and we're officially going steady. We're also going to the homecoming dance together this weekend." I inform mother, scared as to what her reaction may be.

"The hell you are, Veronica!" She yells at me. Both of us turn away from the counter and begun to look at one another as we argue.

"Why do you dislike him so much?" I ask, raising my voice too as I step closer towards her. She doesn't respond with words, but instead she steps closer to me too and raises her hand before slapping me across the face.

"You are to not see him anymore." Mother says in a now almost calm voice. I look back up and brush my fingers over my stinging cheek before bursting out in tears and running upstairs. I lay back on my bed and continue crying for the next few minutes before I am able to pull myself back together again. A minute or two after I stop crying, the phone begins to ring.

"Hello?" I say as I place the phone by my ear, my voice cracking slightly. 

"Hi Veronica, it's J.D.. Is everything alright?" J.D. asks on the other line. Just hearing the sound of his voice and knowing that I may not be able to see him anymore makes me want to start crying again, but I try not to.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine." I attempt to laugh but that same cracking remains in my voice.

"No you're not. Stay home, I'll be there in five minutes." J.D. responds. I try to tell him to not come over, but he hangs up before I can. He was now coming over regardless, so I may as well attempt to hide his presence from mother. I go downstairs and slip out onto the front porch so that when he arrives, he doesn't ring the doorbell, since that would tell mother there was someone here. If she asks me about it when I come back in, I'll simply make up an excuse.

A few minutes later, that same all black motorcycle pulls up in front of my house. I may have been able to stop myself from crying after just hearing J.D.'s voice, but when I saw J.D. walking over to me, knowing that I'm not allowed to see him, I couldn't stop myself. The second J.D. stepped foot on the porch I began crying. He quickly wrapped his arms around me and I buried my face into his chest and tears dripped out from my eyes. 

"Shh, you're okay, I'm right here." J.D. says softly as he runs his hand up and down my back in an attempt to calm me down and stop my tears. After a minute or so, they finally do stop and I sit down next to him on the bench. "Can you tell me what's happened?" He asks, keeping an arm wrapped around my back to comfort me as I speak.

"When I got home from Rosie's today, I began helping my mother in the kitchen. We begin talking and she said that I'm not allowed t-to see you anymore. I-I told her that you and I were going steady and that we're going to the homecoming together, an-and she began yelling at me. I asked her why she doesn't like you, and then she-she..." I trail off as I start to cry again and lay my head back on his chest. Mother rarely ever hits me. In fact, it's September and I think this is the first time she's laid a violent hand on me all year.

"I understand if you don't call me or talk to me anymore, don't worry about it." J.D. says, making me sit back up straight. I examine his face, he now looks incredibly upset too.

"J.D., I-I don't think I'll ever stop talking to you. Where would I have gone after Heather Chandler kicked me out of the homecoming party if you weren't there, who would I have talked to after Kurt Kelly attacked me? I'm not going to listen to her." I explain to J.D., causing him to smile although his eyes looked like they were crying. He places a hand under my chin to lift up my face as he leans forwards and kisses me.

"Thank you." J.D. smiles as he pulls away. I smile back before resting my head on his chest once again. I feel his heart beating fast at first but slowing down to a normal pace as we sit in comfortable silence. "Does anybody know that you're out here?" J.D. asks me as I trace my finger in mindless abstract shapes on his knee.

"Does anybody know you're at my house?" I ask him, suggesting that he too left without telling a parent.

"That's fair." He laughs in response.

"I suppose I should be heading back inside, soon. Someone will notice that I'm missing and come out here to see me with you." I sigh as I remain resting partially on top of J.D..

"I suppose." J.D. responds as he sits up straight, causing me to do the same. We both stand up from the bench. "Goodbye, Veronica." J.D. says before wrapping his hands around my waist and leaning down to kiss me. I place my hands on his shoulders to bring him closer to me before we pull apart.

"Goodbye, J.D.." I loosely smile before turning around and walking back inside. 

"Who is it?" Mother shouts, still in the kitchen.

"It's Veronica, mother." I respond. 

"Why were you outside?" She continues with her questioning.

"Just-just getting seem fresh air."


	20. Chapter 20

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is decimated to @scouts_mockingbird. She didn’t suggest it or anything, I have just made it my personal job to make her life as happy as possible.

That next day the Heathers and I went shopping for our homecoming dresses. I also had to buy myself a corsellette to wear under my dress, but to no surprise, all of the Heathers already owned one from going to fancy events and homecoming the previous year. All of that occurred on Wednesday, then Thursday went by awfully slow, but now it's last period on Friday and I'm hoping either one of the Heathers or J.D. will ask to get together with me after school today because the thought of just sitting at home sounds boring beyond compare.

The dismissal bell finally rings and I practically jump out of my seat. I walk out of the school and towards J.D.'s motorcycle where I've been meeting him the past few days so he can take me home. I still ride the bus in the mornings, though, I just ride with J.D. in the afternoons.

J.D. shows up after a minute or so and drives me back home. On the way up to my front door, J.D. starts up a conversation. "Hey, why don't you see if you can come over later today?" He asks.

"J.D. I told you my mother said I'm not allowed to see you anymore. She's just barely letting me go to homecoming with you, and that's only because you asked me before she said I can't be with you." I explain, saddening as I think about not being able to see J.D..

"Well, why don't you just tell your mom that you're going to a Heather's house." J.D. suggests. His persistence shows that he really wants me to come over, so I comply. 

"I'll see what I can do, but no promises. I'll call you in a little bit and tell you what she says." I reply. We kiss goodbye before I turn and walk inside. "Mother?" I say as I walk through the foyer into the kitchen. I know father won't be home, he doesn't normally get home until 5:00, so I only shout out mother.

A few seconds later I hear a door open and see mother walk out of the master bedroom. "Yes?" She asks as walks over to me, a smile on her lips.

"I wanted to let you know what I'm home. Also, I wanted to ask if I could go to Heather McNamara's house tonight, she asked me about it at lunch today. I won't need you to drive me, she said she could pick me up if that's alright." I lie to her.

"That's just fine dear, will you be spending the night?" She continues the conversation. I tell her that I won't be before going upstairs to my room. I get started on the weekends homework before calling J.D.. After about an hour, I've already finished all of my homework for the weekend. I put my books and papers into my book bag before picking up my phone and calling J.D.. 

"Hello J.D., it's Veronica." I smile after I hear J.D. pick up the phone.

"Hi, did you ask your mom about tonight?" He asks me.

"Yes, I did. I told her I was going to Heather McNamara's house and she said that it was alright. When do you think you'll be here?" I question him. I would prefer if I didn't go over to his house until some time after dinner, I'm starving and looking forward to whatever mother is cooking for dinner.

"Let's say 6:00, does that work?" He suggests. I tell him that it does and we say our goodbyes before hanging up. I look at my clock to see that its already 5:15, so dinner should be ready any minute. Before I have to go downstairs, I quickly call Heather McNamara and ask her to cover for me and say that I am at her house if my mother calls her, which she shouldn't. Heather kindly agrees and I thank her very much. Once I'm finished with all of my phone calls, I slide on my flats I wore that day before walking down the stairs to see if mother needs any help setting the table.

I walk into the dining room to see mother and father standing up. "Oh, Veronica, I was just about to go get you." Mother smiles before we all sit down in our usual chairs. Mother and father start up discussion between the two of themselves, but then begin to force me into the conversation by asking me questions about my personal and school lives.

Mother asks me what time Heather is coming to pick me up, I tell her 6:00. She then asks me when I'll get back, I tell her around 9:00. Father asks me who I'm going to the homecoming dance with, I tell him J.D.. When I mention J.D., both mother and father look disappointed before glancing down at their plates, but I pretend to not notice. The three of us continue talking until we are all done eating. I am, per usual, the first one to leave the table and escape to my room upstairs.

I look back at my clock and see that I only have about ten minutes before J.D. will be here. I quickly slip into my closet to take off the petticoat I wore under my skirt to school that day, fore it was beginning to itch. I step back into my room and slide on my shoes before thinking about the possibility of mother or father opening the door to greet Heather, but instead seeing J.D.. I rush down the stairs and tell mother, who was cleaning dishes off of the table, that I was going to go wait for Heather on the porch.

Luckily, she doesn't ask any questions so I walk outside and sit on the porch bench as I wait for J.D. to pull up to my house. After about five minutes he does, making me smile as I stand up and walk down to the sidewalk. "You ready?" J.D. asks me, staying on his bike. I reply 'yes' before climbing onto the bike behind him. 

When we arrive at his house, I am surprised to see that his father isn't home. "J.D., is your father still working this late?" I ask as we walk through his front door. 

"Either that or he's out drinking with some friends." J.D. laughs. He stops walking and turns around to face me. "Meaning, we're the only ones here." He smiles as he wraps his hands around my waist. J.D.'s physical actions lead me to believe that he meant what he said in a lightly suggestive way which makes me blush. 

He tilts his head down and presses his lips against mine. I lift up my hands and run them through his hair as he pulls me closer to him. Things become more intense and a little bit too much for me so I place my hands on his chest and push him slightly. "Is everything alright?" J.D. asks me with concern after he pulls away from me.

"Yeah it's just, um, why don't we go sit down." I suggest. He takes my hand in his and leads me over to the couch in the living room. J.D. walks up to the tv and flips through channels until he finds one that just started playing Forbidden Planet. "Oh, let's watch this."

"That works for me." He smiles as he walks back to the couch and sits down next to me. He places his arm behind my shoulders and I rest my head on his arm. The movie stretches on for almost two hours. Right after the movie ends, and episode of The Twilight Zone begins, and J.D. tells me that it was the one that came on this Tuesday. We decide to watch the episode, and after it I look down at my watch and see that it is already 8:45, meaning that I only have fifteen minutes left. "Do you want to find something else to watch?" J.D. asks me as I sit up straight on the couch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the strange cutoff, this is another chapter I had to just cut in half at some point but y’all better PREPARE yourselves for the next chapter ;)


	21. Chapter 21

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm posting a "bonus" chapter tonight because I've been writing so much and want to get some extra stuff out there for you guys. I will still be posting another chapter on Tuesday.
> 
> This chapter is dedicated to user @Daisy because they leave such sweet comments on this story <3
> 
> Warning: very very lightly mature content ;)

"Well, we don't get to talk much at school, and we don't talk for very long while we're on the phone, so why don't we talk while we're here." I suggest, and he smiles at the idea. We both turn so that were facing one another and I curl my legs up onto the couch.

"Alright then. Well, is everything going well at home?" J.D. asks me. That is one of the reasons I like him so much. His question aren't just retired old prompts that lead to meaningless conversations like 'what is your favorite color' or 'what is your best subject in school' or now clichéd questions that may have at one point in time been insightful like 'what is your biggest fear'. Instead he asks me genuine questions about my well being to create a personal and strong connection between the two of us, and I try to do the same for him.

"It's okay at home, I guess. Neither my mother nor father like you, hence as to why I'm having to lie to them about being at a Heather's house right now, but I don't talk to them very much in the first place so it's not too big of a deal." I explain. "How are things with your father?" I ask J.D.. I know that J.D. has a bad father, but I want to make sure things aren't too bad, and if there's anything I can help with. 

"Don't worry about him, I rarely talk to him anyways." J.D. shrugs.

"You deserve a better father, I'm really sorry J.D.." I sigh as I look down in my lap.

"Don't be." J.D. loosely smiles as I tilt my head back up to face him and return the smile.

While we're talking about his father, a terrifying thought slips into my brain. "Um, J.D., h-how often do you normally move?" I ask, stuttering slightly. He looks at me sorrowfully as he takes one of my hands into his. 

"Let's not worry about that until we have to, okay?" J.D. says as he comfortingly runs his thumb back and forth across my hand. I nod and barely mutter the word 'okay' in response. He raises his other hand, places it behind my neck, and pulls me close to him to kiss me. 

After a few seconds we pull away and he continues speaking. "But I will say, I have a feeling that we may be staying here for a little while. All of the other places I've lived, they've been developed cities that were just adding a new building or two, but Sherwood is becoming a city, and a few days ago I heard my dad talking to someone on the phone and from what I picked up on, I think his company may be in the process of signing a contract to be the builders for a new neighborhood. Neighborhoods aren't like single large buildings. You can make a single large building all at once, but neighborhoods happen over time since people have to buy the lots and pick a house to build on them. Neighborhoods can take a few years to be completely filled." J.D. informs me with a grin. I think about J.D. staying in Sherwood with me for the rest of high school and the thought makes me smile widely.

"Now, I won't get my hopes up," I begin, quickly correcting myself from my childish thoughts of happily ever after. "But that would be absolutely amazing if it were to happen."

"That would be, wouldn't it?" J.D. smiles as he slides his hand down onto my skirt. I lean forward and push my lips against his as I place my hands on his shoulders. J.D. grasps onto my waist and, as things become more fervent, lifts me up slightly and moves me onto his lap, with each of my legs on either side of him. Our chests are barely separated, and me moving made my skirt rides up a good bit above my knees. I slide my hands up into J.D.'s hair and his hands travel down from my waist onto my now, if I'm not counting my stockings, exposed thighs. I'm not sure if J.D. knows, but as he moves his hands back up towards my waist he is actually pushing up underneath the fabric of my skirt.

He slows down his hand movement a little bit so I don't say anything as he starts to kiss down the side of my neck. His hands begin to trail upwards again, making my heart beat quickly, and eventually reach a little above my mid thigh, higher than I'm comfortable with. I gasp softly as I feel my lower stomach fill with butterflies. Both of my hands quickly relocate to J.D.'s arms to stop them from moving any higher as a sort of reflex.

"Sorry." He breathes against my neck as he pulls my skirt back down, a simple yet hugely important sign that he respects me and my boundaries.

"You're fine." I smile as I lift my hands back up to his hair and he continues to kiss my neck. J.D. squeezes his hands around my hips and pulls me closer to him. Without warning he bites the skin at the base of my neck, causing me to gasp again and that same lurch in the bottom of my stomach. I feel him smile against my skin, I think he was trying to get a reaction out of me. All of a sudden we hear the front door open, making us both jump slightly. I quickly slide off of J.D.'s lap and pull my skirt all the way down. As footsteps echo from the door towards the living room I look down at my watch and see that it's already 9:05.

"Shoot, I was supposed to be home five minutes ago." I worriedly tell J.D..

"Don't worry, I'll take you back right now." J.D. replies as we stand up from the couch. We turn around to walk towards the front door but instead see J.D.'s father staring at me.

"Still this same girl, huh?" His father laughs as he keeps his eyes plastered onto me, making me incredibly uncomfortable.

"She was just leaving." J.D. replies.

"She can spend the damn night for all I care. Hell, she's done it before." His father says before stumbling into, what I assume is his bedroom. I've found that whenever J.D.'s dad refers to me it's always 'she' or 'that girl', and he talks about me as if I'm not even standing in the room, but I'd much rather be called that than be forced to have a conversation with him.

J.D. and I walk side by side to the front door before walking outside and to his motorcycle. "I'm sorry about that." J.D. apologizes as we get onto his bike.

"It's alright." I reply as I wrap my arms around his torso. He drives me back to my house, possibly speeding a little bit, but we arrive in perfectly fine condition. 

"I guess I'll drive over here tomorrow before Heather McNamara comes to drive us to homecoming in a proper car." J.D. says as we step onto the driveway. 

"Yes, that's what Heather said the plan was." I reply before kissing J.D. one last time for the night. "No need to walk me to the door, I don't want mother or father seeing you." I smile lightly. We say our goodbyes before I walk up to the front door and back inside of my house.


	22. Chapter 22

The next day, with the great assistance of mother, I got dressed for the homecoming dance. When the Heathers and I were shopping for homecoming dresses and I had to buy a corsellette, I requested simply getting a zip up one but the girls insisted on a lace up one because you could cinch it more, and mother sure took advantage of that. By the time mother was done lacing me up I could only take small breaths. 

"Well that's how it's supposed to be." Mother responded when I complained about how tight it was. "When your grandmother was a teenager, so sometime at the start of the century, some people still believed that if a lady went in public without her corset that she was a disgrace to her family."

"My goodness, I can't imagine having to wear this everyday, let alone an actual corset. Would you get the petticoat from the closet?" I request of mother. After retrieving the petticoat she helps me step into it and pull I up around my waist. 

Mother then assists me in putting on my actual dress. It was absolutely lovely, the outermost layer of the dress was light blue tulle and there was a wide sash of white lace tightly wrapped around the waist. The same pattern of lace was used as a circle neckline.

"Oh, you look all grown up." Mother smiles as we both look at me in my full length mirror. "Why don't you put your shoes on and come downstairs so I can take a few pictures of you." She suggests. I nod in response before traveling into my closet to find and slide on a pair of low white kitten heels.

I gave myself a final look in my mirror before grabbing my purse and walking down the stairs to meet mother. She takes a few pictures of me by the front door and then carries the polaroids into the kitchen to sit them on the counter. J.D. arrives a few minutes before Heather McNamara pulls up in the driveway to take us away to the school dance.   
"You look amazing." J.D. compliments me as he opens my car door.

"Ask do you." I reply before sitting down in the back seat. J.D. walks around the car and gets in on the other side of me.

"Hello Veronica, J.D.." Heather smiles as she turns around to nod at both of us. Although, my attention was more so focused on her new boyfriend in the driver’s seat.

"Hi, I don't believe that we've met. I'm Doug Hilton." He introduces himself, reaching back to shake mine and J.D.'s hands.

"I'm Veronica, I've heard a lot about you." I respond with a smile. J.D. introduces himself too before we drive off to the high school.

Upon entering the school we are met with the other two Heathers who are accompanied by their dates. We don't engage in any conversation, we just merely nod, smile, and continue on with our way. 

"This will be your first proper homecoming, won't it?" I ask J.D. as we walk into the gymnasium. Luckily, they had covered the floor in a tarp so we wouldn't have to take off our shoes.  
"I guess so, huh." J.D. smiles. I look around me, expecting to see Heather McNamara, but I suppose she has already run off with her date or ran back to the other girls. "Hey, don't worry about them, they'll be fine." J.D. reassures me, practically reading my mind. "Let's just try to be normal teenagers for the night, okay?" He suggests. I smile and nod as I wrap my arms around his shoulders. He places his hands on the small of my back as we begin to dance the night away.

***

The very next Monday, J.D. and I follow our usual routine of him driving me home. Upon arriving at my house, he strikes up a conversation. "Veronica, I have something I want to tell you." J.D. says as we walk onto my front porch. His serious tone causes me to become quite nervous, but when I look at him he wears a smile. "Do you recall me telling you about my dad possibly getting a deal to be the builders for a new neighborhood?" 

"Yes, of course." I smile as I take a step closer to him. His facial expressions suggest that what he is about to say is good news.

"Well, yesterday night he told me that he signed the final contract with the owners of the land and that his company will be building on it, which means that we will be staying in Sherwood for at least two more years." J.D. explains to me.

"Oh my goodness J.D., that it wonderful." I reply with a smile so wide I'm practically laughing as I wrap my arms around his neck and hug him. He places his hands on my back and pulls me closer to him. "This will be the longest you've ever stayed anywhere, won't it?" I ask him as we pull away.

"In my memory, yes." He responds. I stand in front of him, smiling like an idiot, before the happiness of the situation dissolves and it becomes quite awkward.

"Well then, I guess I'll see you tomorrow." I say at J.D..

"I guess so. Goodbye, Veronica." He responds before stepping towards me and leaning downwards to kiss me. We pull apart and I say goodbye too before going inside my house. I look all around the first floor of the house for mother but I can't find her. I go out to the garage and see that both cars are missing. One car is from father at work, so the other one must be mother out too. I decide to go upstairs to begin on the nights homework.

***

"Veronica, you've been exceptionally giddy today, what happened?" Heather Chandler asks me as we sit down in our usual booth at Rosie's. I know very well what she's talking about, at some points throughout the day I would think about what J.D. told me yesterday and I would just start smiling and couldn't stop.

"Well," I begin, feeling a grin already starting to form on my lips. "Yesterday J.D. told me that his father got a job to be the construction company for a new neighborhood, so he'll be staying her for at least two more years." I explain to all three of the girls. Heather McNamara starts smiling too, probably because she sees that I'm happy, but the other two look slightly confused.   
"Does he normally move very often?" Heather Duke asks me.

"Yes, this will be the longest he's ever stayed in one place." I inform the group.

"Well, Veronica, it seems as if you've been completely wooed." Heather McNamara smiles as a waitress comes to take our orders. We tell her our orders and right afterwards a new conversation erupts at the table. I sit watching the situation as if I'm not in my own body, but instead viewing it from across the room. I was sitting with all of the Heathers as we drink milkshakes and talk about our boyfriends. If someone had come to me this summer and told me I would be in this situation, I would have laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I didn't write that much about the homecoming chapter, sorry! Nothing important for the plot happened at the dance so I didn't focus on it much. As @scouts_mockingbird requested, I am going to post pictures I find of how I imagined the girls' homecoming dresses later today on my Tumblr @retro_pure_jdonica


	23. Chapter 23

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tragic

"Mother, is it alright if I go to J.D.'s house after dinner this afternoon?" I ask mother as I approach the living room couch. We haven't talked about J.D. after our fight in the kitchen, which was a little over a week ago now.

"You're still seeing that boy?" Mother questions back as she lays her magazine down on her lap. She looks up at me and I silently nod my head. "When will you be back?" She sighs very reluctantly.

"He said he could be here around six, so I'll be back no later than eight." I explain to her.

"I suppose that that's okay, but before you go running off upstairs I want to talk to you. Please sit." Mother tells me. I walk around to the other side of her and sit down on the couch. She places her magazine on the coffee table and turns to face me. "I know that you've been seeing this boy for almost a month now and that you two have been going steady recently. I also know that this is your first time having a boyfriend. I assume you've probably kissed Jason a few times, haven't you?" 

"Yes, ma'am." I respond as I look down in my lap. I don't really like having this conversation with mother, especially since she doesn't exactly approve of him.

"Has he ever ask you to, or tried to, do things with you that you weren't comfortable with?" Mother asks me. I know what she's suggesting and I despise it.

"No ma'am, he isn't like that. I know he'd never pressure me to do something or even ask me to if he didn't think I was okay with it." I quickly explain to Mother. I'm telling the honest truth and trying to make her think differently about him. Although, this conversation does make me think of last Friday when I went to J.D.'s house. Both when we were kissing in the foyer and in the living room he started to go further than I was comfortable with, but I expressed that feeling and both times he immediately stopped and either apologized or asked me if I was okay. I know that J.D. respects me and feelings on how far I'm willing to take things, which, at the moment, isn't very far.

"Okay, I believe you, but you do need to know your own personal limits and know that it is completely okay to tell him to stop or that you're not comfortable. Now, I'm not exactly sure how you teens talk to one another nowadays, but Veronica I strongly suggest that, regardless of who you're going steady with, you verbally tell them your own limits. That way, if they ever break those limits, they will have no excuse and you will know that they don't respect you nor deserve you." Mother explains to me. Although everything she told me I already knew towards the back of my mind, I am very glad that she bluntly told me this advice. 

"Thank you, Mother. I will remember that and I think I'll talk to J.D. about what you told me." I truthfully and very genuinely respond to her with a smile. I walk out of the living room and back upstairs to call J.D. and tell him that I can come over. He quickly responds after I dial his number and I tell him that mother gave me permission to see him. He replies happily and reassures me that he will come pick me up at six.

***

"That must be J.D., goodbye." I say to mother as I stand up from the chair I had been sitting on in the living room.

"Alright." Mother sighs as she glances up at me, contradictory to her usual behavior towards my mentioning of J.D., she wears a small smile. My saddle shoes click on the hardwood flooring as I walk over to the front door. I open the door and a leather jacket covered J.D. is revealed. He does his semi-common greeting of slowing looking me up and down before finally saying hello.

"Hello to you too." I smile, feeling my cheeks redden after how he just looked at me, as I step outside and close the door behind me. We walk over to his motorbike and get on before he drives us back to his house. To my surprise, his father's van is in the driveway. "It looks as if your father is home for once." I laugh as we venture to the inside of his house.

"Yes, which leads me to something else." J.D. begins as we stand by the inside of his front door. "I didn't want to just invite you over to watch television like we normally do, I wanted to talk to you about something. We could go sit in my bedroom to talk if that's alright, if we stay out in the living room I'm afraid my dad will interrupt us about a thousand times."

"Of course." I respond as I trail beside him towards his bedroom. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous, I have no idea what J.D. wants to talk about. His room hasn't changed much since the last time I was in it except for the two boxes that were previously stacked in a corner has now vanished. We both sit down on his bed and J.D. begins the conversation. 

"I want to preface this by saying that I've never had this conversation with anybody, so please forgive me if I'm choppy and don't make much sense.” He begins with a nervous sigh. “Even though we've been going steady, I continued to not be very open with you. You've probably, or maybe, noticed that I don't talk a lot about other people I've known from my previous schools. To tell you the absolute truth Veronica, I've never had a proper group of friends before, I've never even really had a true friendship with somebody. I was scared that this move would be like all of the other moves; we'd go to a new town, stay for a few months, then pack up and move again. I was scared to get too close to you because I may be ripped away again, and I'm still slightly scared of that. Now I know that I'll be here for at least a while, so I'm going to try to make this work and be open with you." J.D. explains to me. 

He looks down most of the time while he's talking, he's probably embarrassed, but occasionally he looks up and we make eye contact. As he speaks I feel my lips being dragged into a frown like one which appears when you see a crying child with nobody offering it comfort. For these few moments when he was speaking to me, he wasn't a troublesome teenager known for mischief, he was a damaged human who had been crying out for years with nobody helping him, but now I could give him that help. Whenever I get upset because of something that happened at school, I could always talk to a parent or a friend about it which would make things better, but J.D. didn't have those friends or a caring parent to talk to. He always had to deal with his problems entirely on his own, but now I'm here to support him always.

I snap out of my thoughts and quickly realize that he had stopped talking almost thirty seconds ago and I had been sat staring at him silently, which was no doubt detrimental. "J.D. I-I'm so sorry about what you've gone through. I promise you, I'm not going anywhere." I reply as I wrap my arms around him and hug him. He doesn't move for a second, possibly out of shock, but then he places his arms around my waist and hugs me back tightly.

"Thank you." I hear J.D. say, his voice cracking slightly. I gently pull away to see a single tear race down his right cheek. I lift my hand and wipe it away as I smile gently to lighten the mood. "Oh, uh, sorry." J.D. awkwardly laughs as he raises his hand and brushes his finger directly underneath his right eye.

"Don't be."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know I've gotten multiple comments about Mrs. Sawyer's disliking for J.D. so I would like to clarify that Mrs. Sawyer still dislikes J.D., she is just looking out for Veronica.


	24. Chapter 24

"So remember, we're all going to see Some Like It Hot tonight at eight, so Mac will probably pick you up around seven thirty." Heather Chandler reminds me as we walk down the hallway to our last classes. I sigh at the thought of going out with the three of them tonight, I'm not in the mood for some uptight event where I have to actually go out to town. Heather Chandler has study hall so she veers from my path to go to the library as I continue walking.

Last period goes by far too slowly but eventually, the dismissal bell rings and I rush outside to J.D.'s motorcycle. He somehow beat me to it and greets me with a smile as I approach him. We follow the usual routine of driving to my house and then conversing there.

"So, do you have any plans for tonight?" He asks as we sit down on my front porch bench.

"Yes, the Heathers all want to go see some new movie tonight so I have to tag along." I explain, not looking or sounding very excited.

"Well, do you want to go?" J.D. asks as he turns towards me and looks slightly concerned.

"Well not quite." I respond. Me going to the movies isn't that big of a deal to me, but it seems like it is for him.

"Then don't go. If you don't want to then you shouldn't, it'll just make you upset and that's not good." J.D. continues. He maintains the expression and tone that suggests this is a more important matter than it actually is.

"Heather Chandler wouldn't be too happy." I laugh, thinking about what she would say if I canceled for no reason.

"W-would she get mad at you?" J.D. asks, still on edge.

"Probably just annoyed." I respond. J.D. is acting very peculiar, he's acting very concerned, but an odd type of concerned, like he doesn’t want me out of his sight.

"Well if you don't want to go then don't. You could come over to my house instead, we could watch television." He suggests.

"I'll call Heather and see what I can do, I'll call you after that and tell you if I could cancel with Heather or not." I tell J.D. as I stand up from the bench, and he does too.

"Alright." J.D. smiles in response before placing his hands on my lower back and pulling me close to him to kiss me. I kiss back and rest my hands on his shoulders. "Goodbye, Veronica." He says as we pull apart.

"Goodbye, J.D.."

I saunter into the foyer of my house and end up trailing silently around the first floor looking for mother. As I walk, I try to think about why J.D. was so troubled about me going out with the Heathers. It may have been that he simply wanted to see me tonight, but he was talking so fast and looked as if I had told him I was ill. My thoughts are interrupted when I find mother sitting on the living room couch watching tv as she crochets a doily. "Hello mother, I just wanted to let you know that I'm home." I say to her which gains her attention.

"Veronica, is something bothering you?" Mother asks. I guess my facial expression gave away that I was thinking about something and that I was slightly upset.

"Oh, nothing." I attempt to shrug off the matter.

"Does this have to do with Jason?" She questions me, that same tone of eve so slight disgust and disapproval in her voice.

"No, not at all." I lie to her.

"Well, then what's wrong?" She continues.

"Just, uh, thinking about school stuff." I lie again.

"Hmm, any plans for tonight?" Mother asks me as she continues quickly crocheting and not paying very much attention to me.

"Yes, I was wondering if I could have permission to go to J.D.'s house tonight and watch some movies." I say as a sort of question.

"I suppose so." She mutters in response, clearly still not happy about me being with J.D.. I think mother has almost given up on trying to keep me away from J.D. though because she's been giving me permission to see him.

"Thank you." I say softly as I turn around to go upstairs to my room, now I just have to try to get Heather to let me out of the movie theater trip. I grab my little notebook of phone numbers of friends from the top drawer of my nightstand and flip through it to find Heather Chandler's number.

After finding her number I call her house and her mother picks up, whom I tell I am calling for Heather. Heather gets on the line and in an attempt to avoid spinning some web of lies which ends in me getting caught, much like what happened with mother when I first started seeing J.D., I ask if I can skip on seeing the movie tonight and truthfully tell her why I'm asking.

After some negotiating, she eventually lets me out of the trip. I then thank her repeatedly before hanging up and immediately calling J.D.. I tell him that Heather let me out of the movie event so I can see him tonight. He responds happily and says that he can come pick me up around six.

Once all of my phone calls are completed, I lay my head down on a pillow and try to restart my thoughts on why J.D. gave me such a request. I remember how I thought that during our conversation he looked highly concerned and was rambling very quickly. I think he may be concerned about my ties with the Heathers, he doesn't have very good ideas of any of them. He was with me at Heather Chandler's house the night after the homecoming party and he knows that Heather Duke was the one who set me up on the double date with Kurt, but what it is about the Heathers I'm not sure. He may think that I just don't like them and that was him trying to help me out of having to be with them, or maybe he thinks they're still blatantly mean to me and we're going to hurt me, less physically and more emotionally. Whatever it is I try to remember that J.D. hasn't had many friends before, let alone a girlfriend, so I need to give him room and the patience to develop an understanding of how to treat someone you're in a relationship with, whether that be romantic or platonic.

Although, I may just be gravely over exaggerating the situation. Not having enough mental energy or the mental capacity to continue with developing the possible reasoning behind why J.D. was saying such things, I decide to stop doing so and begin working on homework before dinner.


	25. Chapter 25

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> light mention of sexual assault

"Be back by 10:00." Mother demands as I stand up from the couch to begin my walk over to the front door, fore the doorbell had just rung and we both assumed it was J.D..

"I should be back before then, goodbye mother." I respond before officially exiting the living room and entering the foyer. I open the door and, to no surprise, see J.D. standing outside. He greets me and I do the same before we walk over to his motorcycle and ride back to his house. He begins a conversation per usual as we walk inside of his house, so I assume everything is going alright. Neither of us mentions the discussion we had right after school earlier today, so I'm able to partially shrug it off.

"So, is everything in your life going alright?" J.D. strikes up a conversation as we sit down on his couch. I decide to not bring up what he said to me, it would create issues and concern him, two things I don't want to happen.

"For the most part, yes. My mother and father are still wary of you, but I think they're growing more tolerant." I explain to him with a small smile.

"What about the Heathers, are they being okay to you?" J.D. continues.

"Oh, you don't need to worry about them." I laugh, realizing J.D. doesn't know very much about my "friend" group. "They're decent to be around now, at least Heather McNamara is."

"Well, that's nice. I know this happened a while ago, but are you okay after what Kurt did?" J.D. asks me. I had almost blacked out that memory, I thought it would be better if I just forgot it. My first time being touched in a sexual manner was by force and without consent from me, so just deleting it from my memory made the most sense.

My sudden remembering of the incident must have become clear through my facial expressions because J.D. began to express even more concern. "It's not okay, is it?" He asks as he takes one of my hands in his.

"It's just that, uh, nothing. It's alright." I partially lie to him. I don't want J.D. becoming too deeply concerned about me when he doesn't need to.

"Well clearly it's not, do you want to talk about it?" J.D. asks in a comforting voice. Something about his surprisingly kind and welcoming demeanor in these types of conversations made me feel compelled to tell him all of my sorrows, which I think is what he wants me to do.

"No it's fine, it's just that I had almost unknowingly removed that situation from my memory." I inform him, and he immediately becomes on edge.

"Oh, Veronica, I didn't mean to-" J.D. begins to apologize, but I stop him.

"No, no, don't be sorry, it's really alright. I rarely ever see Kurt anymore, we don't have any classes together and none of the Heathers have brought him up recently. Besides, nothing really bad happened." I explain to J.D., but he continues to look concerned. He wraps his arms around my back and pulls me into a hug as he kisses my forehead.

"You do know that you can talk to me about anything whenever you need to, right?" J.D. asks as I sit back up straight.

"Yes, of course." I smile in response before leaning forward and pressing my lips against his. He slides his hand down my arm and takes my hand in his again.

"Let's go do something." J.D. suggests as he pulls away, appearing as if he just got a burst of adrenaline.

"Like what?" I laugh as J.D. stands up from the couch, raising me up too as he keeps our hands together.

"Your favorite place, list it right now." J.D. smiles, looking very excited. I begin to stutter as I try to think of my favorite places in town so quickly.

"Uh, um, if you drive all the way down Alexandra Grove it ends atop a beautiful mountain that looks over the town." I tell J.D. as a sort of suggestion.

"Alright, we're going there." J.D. responds as he rushes over to the front door, pulling me behind him.

"Wait, are you serious." I laugh as he opens the front door.

"Do you not want to go?" He asks, pausing in the doorframe.

"Well I do, but-" I pause, not really knowing what I was concerned about. "Shouldn't we tell someone that we're leaving? Maybe leave a note." I suggest, completely making it up as I speak.

"My dad won't care if I'm gone. What time do you have to be home?" J.D. asks as we hurry down the driveway.

"My mother told me 10:00." I inform him as he gets onto his motorcycle.

J.D. looks down at his watch, as do I, and observe that it is only about a quarter past 8:00. "We'll be back before then, hop on." J.D. responds. I laugh and roll my eyes before sitting down behind him on the bike, wrapping my arms around his torso.

Sherwood is a small, slightly old-fashioned, town and most people were spending their Friday nights quietly in the comfort of their own homes other than a few loose teenagers. Because of this, once we passed the majority of the intersecting roads on Alexandra Grove, J.D. and I were the only ones on the road. J.D. took great advantage of this fact and began speeding extremely, causing me to tighten my grip around him in fear of wreaking.

Luckily, most of Alexandra Grove was lined with street lights, but there were some gaps where the only light on the road was that of the moon and J.D.'s headlights, which only increased my fear. After about 10 more minutes of driving, we arrive at the end of the road. I haven't been here in a while, especially not while it's dark outside so the scenery is slightly unfamiliar to me. I spot a bench near the edge of the mountain, just behind a wooden fence, and I lead J.D. over to it for us to sit down.

"This is really pretty, Veronica, thank you for telling me about this place." J.D. smiles as we look over the town and the many off-white colored lights down below, contrary to the darkness directly surrounding us. Somehow, even though it was dark and slightly cold, I felt warm on the inside and as if I could see perfectly fine.

"I've never been here at night, so thank you for this experience." I smile in response. "You know, we discussed my personal life back at your house, so let's talk about you. How has life been going for you recently?" I ask J.D. as I turn to face him and curl my legs up onto the bench in an attempt to get comfortable.

"Nothing very exciting has been happening, although I have still been watching The Twilight Zone and it is proving itself to be very entertaining." J.D. informs me.

"How have things with your father been?" I continue with the questions. I know J.D. rarely ever talks to his dad, but when he does it isn't a very positive conversation so I want to make sure they haven't had some kind of fight that would take a toll on J.D..

"Same as usual, he comes home around 7:00, on weekends it's about 10:00, we may say hello to one another, he might complain to me about work." J.D. responds with a small laugh, which contrarily causes me to frown.

"Is that how it's always been?" I question him, slightly concerned. That isn't a very normal type of relationship to have with a parent.

"Ever since he noticed he was able to stop having to care about me, which was about four or five years ago now." J.D. says. The topic seems to not bother him too much, so I try to shrug it off. "Besides, it doesn't matter very much. I don't need him, I have you." He smiles as he places a hand on my lower thigh. His comment makes me smile, and blush a little bit too.

"Well I guess that works out, because you said you won't be going anywhere and I can promise you right now that I won't either." I tell J.D.. He takes pause to look me up and down before leaning forward and pressing his lips against mine as he places his hands on my lower back. I loosely wrap my arms around the back of his neck as he moves his hands to my waist. After a few seconds, we pull apart and I rest my head on his shoulder as we look out over the mountain.

"I wish we could just stay like this, sitting up in front of this view forever." J.D. sighs as he mindlessly brushes his fingers up and down my waist.

"Me too." I respond as I close my eyes and take in the moment, but fate would soon prove herself to not be that kind, fore there were dark sides of the boy sitting right next to me that she planned to reveal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> highkey one of my favorite chapters, also more shitty foreshadowing


	26. Chapter 26

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't worry, everything will be fixed

"Veronica, where are you going?" J.D. stops me as I attempt to walk past his motorcycle.

"Oh, it's Tuesday. I always go out with the girls on Tuesdays for milkshakes." I remind him with a kind smile.

"Always? As in you're obligated to?" He continues. He has the same facial expression and look in his eyes that he did when discussing me going to the movies last weekend.

"Well I wouldn't exactly use the word obligated." I laugh, attempting to make the matter seem less serious.

"Why don't you just not go this one time. Who knows, something may go wrong, they may start being mean to you again." J.D. requests. His reasoning for suggesting that I cancel is absurd and incredibly unlikely.

"J.D., Heather Chandler is already upset that I didn't go out with them to the movies last Friday, I really need to go today." I explain to him. He continues to sound and look concerned, but now it's pushing into slight anger and annoyance because I won't ditch them.

"Veronica I don't like you seeing them, just come with me." J.D. says as he offers his hand for me to take. The last time something like this happened he wasn't showing these angry emotions, now I'm becoming fearful of how he may react if I refuse to go with him.

"I'm sorry, but I'm going with the Heathers." I state my ground before turning to walk away. I feel J.D. grasp onto my arm and turn me around.

"Veronica please don't. I'm sorry I shouldn't have become mad I just, I don't like you going places where I can't look out for you, especially with those girls who are mean to you." J.D. quickly rambles on. His attempt at patching up the situation and making me stay with him failed, seen as I turned around again and walked over to Heather McNamara's car without a word.

***

"You've been awfully quiet Veronica, what's going on with you?" Heather Chandler asks in casual conversation in our usual Rosie's booth. I decide to not inform her about the little road bump I just experienced in my relationship, so I tell a small lie.

"Nothing, just a little bit tired I suppose." I respond as I sit back straight up and try to pretend as if it has just been a normal day. I force myself to momentarily forget about the discussion J.D. and I had and join the discussion the Heathers were having.

After about thirty minutes of semi-fake conversation, seen as we weren't really talking about anything of any importance in our lives outside of social matters, Heather McNamara drives me back home. I thank her for the ride before entering my house, finding mother to tell her that I'm home, and then fleeing upstairs to my room.

Seeing my telephone with that same sheet of notebook paper tucked underneath it reminds me of J.D., he calls me every single night and will probably be calling early today to apologize after what happened. I lay down on my bed and allow myself to truly think about what J.D. said to me today.

He gave a reason as to why he's trying to get me to cancel all of my plans: he doesn't like me going out without him because he's not there to look out for me and something may go wrong, but that's not normal. No matter how hard I try to convince myself that it may be normal because I've never been in a relationship before and this may be what is supposed to happen, I know it's not.

Now I know what's running through my head, but God knows what's running through J.D.'s and we need to talk about this. I sit up on my bed and reach over to the telephone to dial his number after lifting the phone to my ear. The phone barely rings for a second before I hear J.D. pick up on the other line as if he were expecting someone to call.

"Hi J.D., it's Veronica." I reply nervously.

"Veronica, I'm so sorry, can we please talk about what I said?" He quickly requests.

"Yes, we need to, but not over the phone. Could you come over to my house?" I suggest. This is a conversation we need to have in person, I need to make sure he is okay and see what he is feeling so he can possibly explain some of this to me and a telephone won't allow that.

"Yes, of course. I'll be there in five minutes. Goodbye, Veronica." J.D. says. He waits for me to say goodbye too, which I do before hanging up.

Not even three minutes later there is a knock on the front door. Assuming it must be J.D., I rush down the stairs to answer it before mother. I beat her to the door and on the other side is, to no surprise, J.D..

"Hi Veronica, are you alright?" He asks, his voice very choppy.

"I suppose, but J.D. you asking me to cancel all of my plans with other people isn't an okay thing to do." I tell him, cutting straight to the chase as I step onto the porch with him.

"I-I know, believe me. I'm so sorry that I did, and I promise I won't don't ever again. Can we sit down to talk?" J.D. requests, pointing to the bench. I nod and we both go sit down before continuing the conversation. "I've told you that I've never had a serious relationship of any form with anybody before I met you, so I'm asking you to please give me some slack if I make a mistake like this again because I'm still figuring this all out. Also because of the fact that you're the first person I've had a relationship with, you're very special to me. I was scared of losing you now that I have this connection with you, I already sort of depend on you. I was scared that if you went out with other people and I wasn't there to look out for you, somebody may hurt you, but then when I did it upset you and that was the last thing I would want. I realize now that that is not okay, I am in no way allowed to tell you what you are able to do."

J.D. made a very good point while talking, that I must understand that he doesn't know what it's like to even have a friend and that I need to give him room to understand what is okay to do and what isn't. He also said that he did what he did in an attempt to protect me, which I can partially understand, but he knows now that it was wrong.

"It's alright J.D.." I sigh with a small smile. "But protecting me as a girlfriend is something you do by asking me how I'm doing and standing up for me, not monitoring my connections with my friends."

"I know and I promise you I won't ever try to stop you from just going out with friends anymore, and raising my voice and putting my hands on you to turn you around earlier today was not okay. I'm so sorry for doing that." J.D. continues his apology.

"It's fine J.D., I know you didn't have bad intentions and you know to not don't anymore.”

"Say, why don't I make it up to you with a cherry slushie?" J.D. suggests, making me smile.

"I suppose that would even this out." I laugh as we stand up from the bench and walk down to his motorbike before driving off to the 7-Eleven.


	27. Chapter 27

"What time do you have to be back tonight?" J.D. asks as we climb off of his motorcycle.

"9:00 since it's a school night, so we have about two hours. Is that alright?" I question as we walk up to his front door.

"Probably, the first season so far is only about four episodes, all thirty minutes, and the channel is playing them back to back so two hours should be perfect." J.D. explains The Twilight Zone mini-marathon to me as we enter his house. "We can make some popcorn if you like."

"That sounds lovely." I smile, following beside J.D. as we walk into the kitchen. Since I can't be of much help in this process, I just sit down at the island bar and watch as J.D. pours a small box of popping kernels into a pot on the stove. He opens the refrigerator and pulls out two Coca-Cola bottles, one for each of us, before removing the lids and sliding me one.

"Why, thank you." I reply, taking a sip as the popcorn begins to pop quite loudly. "Is your father home right now?" I ask in an attempt to strike up a small conversation.

"I don't believe so, I didn't see his car out front, but he may be here soon." J.D. explains as he gets out a large plastic bowl for the popcorn. The popping soon ceases so he takes the popcorn off of the stove and pours it into the bowl. "Do you like chocolate?"

"I suppose, why?" I reply to the rather out of place question. With no verbal explanation, J.D. walks straight into the pantry before returning with a box of M&Ms which he opens and pours into the popcorn. "You're a genius." I laugh as we carry our food over to the couch. J.D. picks up the tv remote and finds the station that plays The Twilight Zone. I immediately recognize what I see on screen.

"We've missed about half of the first episode, but you've already seen it. Also, all of the episodes aren't connected, they're like each their own story, so it doesn't really matter." J.D. explains. He sounds very excited about the show so I'm glad I'm able to watch it too. "Veronica, I know I've already apologized about this yesterday, but I want to say again that I'm so sorry about pressuring you to cancel your plans and being incredibly overprotective. I promise I'll never do anything like that again, and if I do or I do something else that I shouldn't then please tell me so I know to stop." He spills out as we sit facing each other on the couch.

"It's alright J.D., you didn’t know what you were doing. Why don't we try to start over fresh, hmm?" I suggest to him, which I suppose is the best thing we could do. I don't want my idea of my boyfriend to be intensely altered by his original lack of familiarity with relationships. I understand I need to give him some leeway to build an understanding of relationships because he's not like most people, he's never really been close to someone else before. He didn't mean any harm, nor did he cause any very intense harm, and he quickly recognized that what he was doing was not okay, so he stopped.

"That would be nice." He smiles loosely. "So, how is everything at home?"

When J.D. asks that question I am immediately reminded of the conversation I had with mother where she recommended that I tell J.D. my limits. I guess so much happened between the two of us after that I just never got around to having that discussion with J.D.. I decide to bring it up in this conversation, I really want to tell him my limits and now is as good of a time as ever.

"It's alright I suppose, it's been better. Mother and father still don't exactly approve of me being with you, but mother is decently open to discussing you. One time while discussing my relationship with you she- she told me to..." I begin to trail off as I feel my cheeks flush. I suppose I didn't properly anticipate how awkward this situation would be.

"What?" J.D. asks with slight concern. The best way to say this must be to just blurt it out before I can think about it too much.

"She told me I should tell you what my limits- my boundaries are." I quickly inform him. The vagueness of my statement leaves J.D. looking slightly confused.

"What kind of boundaries?" He asks. His question makes me blush again, I don't wish to say it aloud. Although, I think my blushing made him realize what I was talking about. "Oh, those kinds of boundaries." J.D. answers his own question.

"Yes." I smile softly, I know by his tone that we were now on the same page.

"Oh my god, Veronica if I've ever done something that you weren't okay with I-" J.D. begins some form of apology, sounding incredibly panicked and worried.

"No, no, J.D. you haven't. I suppose it's just, after the incident with Kurt I guess she wanted to make sure nothing like that ever happened again." I explain to him, attempting to tap into my mother's train of thought.

"I want to make sure of that same thing." J.D. smiles loosely.

"I know that you respect my limits, I know the type of person you are and you would never do something if I showed that I wasn't okay with it." I express to J.D., him nodding along as I spoke to show that he agreed with what I was saying. All times that I've pushed his chest away from me or grabbed his hands to stop them from moving, he would pull away and apologize or ask if I was alright and he would not try to do whatever it was again so I know that what I've said is true. "Just know that if I try to push you away even just a little bit or, like I've done before, try to move your hands back that's a way of me saying no or stop or I'm not okay with this." I explain to him. When I say me moving his hands means I'm not okay, I don't mean stop completely, I just mean for him to move his hands and I think he understands that part.

"Ronnie, thank you so much for telling me this, truly. I promise you that I will never persist with something if you in any way show that you're not okay with it." J.D. smiles warmly and I completely believe him. It's very comforting to have this strong trust in him.

***

I walk in the front door of my house after returning from J.D.'s and find myself trailing into the living room where I find mother and father watching the news. "What's going on?" I ask the two of them, seen as the mood in the room felt very tense.

"There was a civil rights protest just about two miles from our home, simply a crowd of colored people marching with signs, not even blocking traffic. A smaller group of white supremacist men stopped them and started attacking them. The police were called and only two white men were taken to jail, twelve colored people were taken too." Father informs me. Our household was strictly against the idea of segregation and I had been taught since I could crawl that all people were equal, so these far too common news events were important to us.

"That's awful, i-is there anything we can do?" I ask, since this happened so close to us some people may go to the police station and attempt to talk the innocent ones out of jail.

"We're not sure yet Veronica, but it's not for you to worry about. This situation is far too messy for a girl as young as you to be involved with. Go to bed please, and we can talk about this tomorrow." Mother tells me. I follow her request and head upstairs to go to bed.


	28. Chapter 28

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: steamy bit

"It feels odd being here with just you." I laugh to Heather McNamara as we walk into Rosie's.

"Well, I thought it would be fun, coming to the best dinner with my best friend to get some milkshakes as a kick off for fall break." Heather smiles in response. I've never heard her call me her best friend before, it kind of caught me off guard for a second. It ended up making me feel very happy to hear someone refer to me as their best friend.

I would say it was even more exciting that the person calling me their best friend was a Heather but to me, Heather McNamara never really had that whole frighteningly popular aspect to her, at least not as strongly as the other two did. Say if, before I joined this clique, Heather McNamara approached me she wouldn't be as rude to me because I wasn't popular.

"So, how has life been treating you recently?" I ask Heather as we sit down at the bar.

"Quite well, actually. I don't have any cheerleading practice over fall break, thank goodness, and I don't have any homework assignments so this can be an actual break for me." She smiles. I have no clue how she does it but her life always seems to be so organized and simple.

"Lucky, I have to read and take notes on a whole unit out of my textbook for American History." Is sigh, dreading the assignment.

"Speaking of American History, how have you and J.D. been?" Heather asks with a massive smile of excitement playing on her lips.

"Good, we're going steady now. In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm going over to his house later tonight." I inform her, reciprocating the smile.

"And you haven't told the other girls that you're going steady yet? Oh, we have to talk all about it tomorrow." Heather gushes, leaving me slightly confused.

"Why? What's happening tomorrow?"

"Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. During all of the minor breaks we have throughout the year like fall, winter, and spring, we have two events: a trip to the drive-in and a massive sleepover. We've been doing this since eighth grade so you must come, they're actually quite fun." Heather explains to me. Not going to lie, the thought of having to go back to the drive-in scares me a little bit.

"Do we do this on the same night, both tomorrow?"

"No. Tomorrow we are going to the drive-in and on Tuesday, so in like four days, we are having the sleepover at Heather Duke's house." She continues with her explanation. I guess I wasn't around when they planned all of this.

"Alright, sounds fun." I semi-fake smile. This is the first sleepover with the girls I will attend, so I'm not quite sure what's in store for me. Heather Chandler and I are far past the stage of her trying to scare me, but Heather Duke and I haven't even really talked in a one on one conversation since the incident with Kurt at the drive in. I'm still kind of mad at her for getting me into that situation, but she was so wrapped up with Ram that I'm not sure if she even noticed what Kurt was trying to do to me. I'll use this sleepover as an attempt to form a proper positive bond with Heather Duke, I'm going to stay in this group for as long as possible so I might as well try to make the experience enjoyable.

***

"Is your father even ever home?" I laugh as I hop off of J.D.'s motorbike and notice that, once again, his father's van is missing.

"Rarely." J.D. laughs as we enter his house. "But that does have its perks." He smiles suggestively as he places his hands on the small of my back, pulls me closer to him, and presses his lips against mine. After a second of shock from how sudden this was, I raise my arms and run my fingers through his hair as his hands move to the sides of my waist. J.D. starts pulling me much closer against him and kissing me much more intensely. He was clearly in a very certain mood, one that I was also beginning to slip into.

"Come here." J.D. says as he pulls away from me, taking my hand in his and leading me towards his bedroom. Once inside he closes, nearly slams, the door before turning back around to face me and begin to kiss me again. While keeping his lips against mine, he picks me up by my waist and sits me down on the edge of his bed. Him standing right in front of me, pretty much between my knees, causes my skirt to ride up to my lower thighs. "Are you okay?" J.D. asks, slightly pulling away from me again.

"Yes." I softly reply. I place my hands behind his neck and quickly pull him towards me to start kissing him again. He removes his hands from my waist and quickly takes off his leather jacket, throwing it on the floor before resting his hands on my thighs right below my skirt and beginning to move upwards. I may have not been okay with it before, but I'm okay with it now. Nonetheless, him touching me still makes my heart beat fast. We continue kissing intensely, even when his hands reach all the way up to the top of my stockings. The feeling of his fingertips against my bare skin makes me gasp lightly as my lower stomach fills with butterflies.

My hands, slightly shaky from nervousness, lower to my legs where they meet J.D.'s hands. I unhook my stockings from all of the straps on my garter belt and lift my legs slightly so I can roll my stockings down to my knees. I feel J.D. smile against my lips as he runs his hands up and down my now bare thighs. "Here." J.D. mutters as he steps closer to me and places his hands on my calves, crossing them behind his back so that I have my legs wrapped around him. He reconnects our lips as he picks me up from under my thighs, turns around, and sits down on the bed now with me in his lap.

I move my calves by bending my knees all the way, my calves now folded underneath my thighs, which is much more comfortable. J.D. begins to kiss down the side of my neck once I start running my fingers through his hair again. He places one of his hands on the other side of my neck and positions his thumb underneath my chin, pushing my jaw upwards. He gets a reaction out of me very quickly; I gasp and curl my fingers around a section of his hair.

J.D. moves his hands back to my legs and starts sliding very high up underneath my skirt. I can practically feel my heart pounding and hear my breath shaking as he grazes his over my skin right below my underwear. Suddenly everything becomes too much for me and I rush to grab his hands and push them off of me.

"Veronica, are you okay?" J.D. asks after he completely pulls away from me, setting his hands down on the bed beside him.

"Oh my god, I'm sorry I-I just..." I stutter, not knowing what to say. "I panicked, I-I'm not used to this, it was just too much too quickly." I tell him. Not to mention mother's old-fashioned ideas about dating; If she found out I let myself go this far with someone she doesn't approve of I would never hear the end of it.

"Woah, don't say that you're sorry. That's completely okay." J.D. very kindly replies. To allow myself to properly calm down by moving to sit beside J.D. on the bed. "Remember what we talked about just two days ago, it's my job to respect what you are and aren't okay with." He continues. I think he believes that he must be quite gentle and verbally show that he's understanding in these situations, at least after the incident with Kurt.

"I know, thank you." I smile faintly, keeping my eyes facing downwards from slight embarrassment.

"Veronica, I'm being genuine." J.D. says, offering his hand out to me. Before accepting his gesture I look up at him and in his facial expression, I can see that he is telling the truth. It's one thing for him to say that he'll respect my limits, but thoroughly acknowledging them in such a heated moment is a whole other thing. I don't have to worry about expressing my voice because I know that as long as I'm with him it will be respected.


	29. Chapter 29

"Are you excited?" Heather McNamara asks me as we walk out to her car. On the inside, I'm scared to go back there. Being at the drive in for the first time since Kurt attacked me there may trigger the memory, and I'm trying to forget it. When I told J.D. that I'm going to the drive-in when I was on the phone with him earlier today, he seemed to be slightly concerned too. I decide to keep my personal problems to myself, I haven't told anyone other than my mother and J.D. and I don't plan on telling anyone else, so I lie.

"Yes, this will be my first time going to the drive-in with all three of you. Do you know what they'll be playing?" I question her, attempting to distract myself from Kurt.

"I know they're having a sci-fi night, and I'm pretty sure it's going to be The Day The Earth Stood Still and It Came From Outer Space." Heather informs me as we get into her car. Sadly, I was the last to be picked up and the only open seat in the car was the back seat behind the driver, the same seat I was sitting in the night it happened, only in Ram's car.

I again try to forget about it and kindly greet Heather Chandler and Heather Duke. When we reach the drive in, we all give Heather Mac money for our own admission. Once we park, Heather Chandler semi-forces Heather Duke to go get sodas and popcorn for the four of us. We came quite early, it was only about 6:30, so the cartoons that play before the movies were still going.

The other two strike up a conversation, something about yearbook committee, and I begin to feel myself breathe quicker. I raise my hand to my chest and feel my heart pounding. I was starting to panic. I squeeze and release my hands in rhythm with making myself take deep, long breaths.

"Veronica, are you okay?" Heather McNamara asks very concernedly, turning around to look at me in the back seat. Her doing so also forced the attention of Heather Chandler onto me, who turned around to look at me.

"What? Yes, I'm fine, why do you ask?" I completely lie. Being under instant pressure to appear as if I was normal makes my breathing quickly settle.

"You were just breathing really loudly and your face was very pale." Heather softly replies.

"Oh, I don't know, I was just thinking. But no, I'm alright." I falsely reassure her. She kindly smiles before returning to her conversation with Heather Chandler.

A few moments later, Heather Duke returns with two large Coca-Colas and two bags of popcorn so we could have one of each for the front row and one of each for the back row. Heather Duke quickly joins some discussion involving rumors about some senior boy sneakily going out on dates, all of which only happened at drive-ins which may suggest some things, with a freshman girl at Remington University even though he was going steady with some girl at Westerburg. The entire conversation could not have bored me more. Sadly, I was forced into it a couple times but listening to it was a nice distraction.

After what seemed like an hour, the opening title for The Day The Earth Stood Still flashes onto the projector screen. We all roll down our windows to we could hear which makes the inside of the car awfully chilly. I desperately try to get into the plot of the movie but all I end up going back to is what happened the last time I was here. I start breathing quicker again, but the others can't really hear me over the sound of the movie and the outside noise from streets that was spilling in through the windows. I begin to become scared that I'm somehow going to be assaulted again which is completely irrational considering who I'm in the car with.

Slipping in and out of a worried and slightly fearful state continues for the next almost three hours since the girls insisted on staying for both movies. About an hour into this odd spiraling of emotions, I'm taken over by a strange feeling of sadness mixed in with that same fear. That new emotion being spun in made things all too much for me and I began silently crying. It only lasted less than a minute, but it was all so confusing. Sometime around when the second movie started, I began to think about J.D.. I want to talk about what happened again with him and I know very well he would want me to tell him if something bad happened to me or upset me. If I tell J.D. about it, then it will somehow be okay again.

Heather McNamara finally drops me off at my house when it's almost 10:00 at night and all of the lights in the house are out. Even if they were on I wouldn't bother looking for mother, I don't want to talk to her about what happened. She won't understand and the conversation wouldn't benefit either one of us.

Instead, I rush upstairs to my room and call J.D.. It's not until after I dial his number that I realize how rude it must be to be calling him so late at night but it's a Saturday night so there are large chances his father isn't even home right now.

"Hello?" I hear J.D. say on the other line, slightly confused. I definitely would be too if someone called my house at 10:00.

"Hello J.D., it's Veronica. I'm so sorry, did I wake you?" I question him, somehow all I can think of right now are concerns.

"No, not at all. It's everything alright, Veronica?" He asks incredibly worriedly. He probably knows that I wouldn't be calling him again today unless something wasn't alright.

"Um, do you know if you could possibly come over to talk? So-something happened when I went back to the drive-in." I request and explain to him.

"Yes, absolutely. I'll be there in five minutes, just- don't, don't do anything. Okay?"

"Okay."


	30. Chapter 30

I slip back out onto my front porch and wait for J.D. to arrive which he soon does. He parks his motorcycle and rushes up to me. Seeing him makes me smile hopefully. Before saying anything I wrap my arms around him in a hug which he immediately reciprocates.

"What happened? Are you okay now?" He asks as he takes my hand in his and leads me over to the bench where we sit down.

"Yes, I'm fine now. It's just, I don't even know, I thought I could handle going back to the drive-in but being in a car in the exact same seat where it happened, Heather Duke being there, and back at the drive-in was just all too much. I started breathing quickly, my heart started pounding, and I began squeezing my hands tightly. I guess I was still trying to suppress the memory but then it was brought back so suddenly and intensely that I started getting scared that it was going to happen again. Then along with all that I got really sad all of a sudden and I started crying and I still don't even really know why. I ju-I just wanted to talk to you to feel safe again and I thought that you would want me to tell you." I explain, talking more in bullet points rather than complete thoughts.

J.D. doesn't respond immediately, instead he just sits silently and thinks for a moment. "I wish I could tell you why you started crying or why you felt sad, but I'm not very knowledgeable in that arena. But I can promise you that you never have to go back to that drive in if you don't want to or if you think it will upset you and that if anything else upsets you even in the slightest you can absolutely always come to me and I will try my absolute hardest to help." J.D. replies, making me want him to never leave.

"Thank you." I smile lightly. Even though we weren't speaking I somehow thought to myself how I felt safer and better with J.D. being there, but that wasn't quite right. I wasn't happy that he was here, I was scared as to what would happen if he left. I knew that if he weren’t here, I would not be able to cope on my own.

"Hey, are you going to be okay?" J.D. asks kindly, causing me to revert my glance back to him.

"Yes, d-do you have to go back now?" I ask nervously.

"No, not if you don't want me to." He comforts me. Suddenly I'm able to make a connection; J.D. wants to be here for me and he doesn't have any other people he has to worry about so more often than not he will race here to be here for me, but that was making this worse. I needed to be alone and independently provide comfort for myself. I decide to not explain this entire thought process to him, fore that would just make him stay longer, but instead just tell him that I'm alright and he can go if he wishes.

"Actually, never mind. I'll talk to you tomorrow. Goodnight J.D.." I smile loosely though I feel my eyes shape as if I were frowning, standing up from the bench.

"Oh, um, goodnight Veronica." He replies, clearly slightly confused. I stay out on the porch to watch him walk away, but I can't do it. When he's halfway to his bike I run down the driveway and grab his arm. "Woah, what happened?"

"I-I'm so sorry, I just couldn't watch you leave. I-I hate being alone, I like having you with me." I stutter, taking a step back from him so that we were a normal distance apart. He looks at me with a mixture of pity and understanding. Without speaking, he begins to smile lightly and raise his pointer finger to signify for me to wait as he takes off his leather jacket.

"Here." He says, wrapping the jacket around my shoulders. "Since I can't exactly be here all night, keep this with you instead."

The simple yet meaningful gesture makes me smile and his attempt succeeded, I ran my hand over the soft leather and felt comforted. "I guess I should let you go now, huh?" I ask with a laugh. He smiles back and takes a step closer to me to kiss my forehead.

"Goodnight, Ronnie." J.D. smiles before continuing to walk over to his motorbike. I turn around so I don't have to see him leave but now that I have this reminder of him with me, I can stand to be alone for the night.

***

"I thought this was just a thing we did while we were in school." I say as I walk with Heather McNamara over to her car she had parked in my driveway. I'm only asking because Heather showed up at my house unexpectedly, I thought I was spending the majority of the day at home up until the sleepover tonight. I wasn't able to call J.D. and tell him that I'm going out so if something bad happens at Rosie's, say a robbery, and I get hurt, he won't know that I'm there.

"Nope, milkshakes every Tuesday, even during the breaks." Heather McNamara informs me as we get into her car. I'm the first one she picked up, but I still sit in the back seat because if I sat in the front Heather Chandler would force me to move when we got her.

We pick up the over two and drive over to Rosie's. The trip goes as all of the other ones have. We got milkshakes and fries, we discussed school, and eventually led into the topic of boys. "Speaking of which, Veronica has something to tell you guys." Heather McNamara announces, clearly referencing later last week when I told her that J.D. and I were going steady.

"Um, J.D. and I have recently started going steady." I inform the group. Heather Duke smiles lightly and strikes up a conversation with me about J.D. while Heather Chandler sits silently with a disapproving look.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the shitty cutoff lol but I highkey love this chapter


	31. Chapter 31

Eventually we all finish our drinks and split the bill before Heather McNamara drives us all back to our houses. Once I arrive home, I tell mother that I’m back before going up to my room and calling J.D., who quickly picks up the phone.

“Hi J.D., it’s Veronica.” I smile after hearing his voice.

“Oh hi, I was worried you weren’t going to call today since you have that sleepover with the Heathers. I would’ve called you but I didn’t know when you were leaving and was terrified by the thought of one of your parents answering.” He laughs in response.

“Well I guess it’s a good thing you didn’t because I just now got back. Apparently, going out to get milkshakes isn’t just a thing we do while we’re in school, it’s an every single Tuesday thing. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it beforehand, I would’ve if I had known but Heather McNamara just kind of showed up out of the blue.” I explain and apologize to him.

“You don’t feel as if you have to tell me every time you go somewhere, do you? I mean after that thing I did a few weeks back, I promise I don’t want you-” J.D. rambles on, clearly worried, but I cut him off.

“It has nothing to do with that, I promise. I’m completely over that. It’s just, I want to tell you when I go places so that if something happens, I know that you know where I am.” I express to him, probably not making much sense. I just like knowing that he knows where I am, it makes me feel less alone.

“Oh, alright. Um, while we’re on the topic, do you have anything planned for tomorrow?” J.D. asks me.

“Not at the moment, why?” I question him back.

“Well, I have a little surprise for you. When do you think you’ll be back from Heather’s house?” J.D. says, making me blush.

“I should be at my house by noon. May I have a hint as to what this surprise is?” I request.

“You’ll find out soon enough. Goodbye, Ronnie.” J.D. replies before hanging up, leaving me perplexed. I’m incredibly excited yet also nervous, I have no idea what this surprise could be.

Now that I’m back home and have a few hours to kill before the sleepover, I decide to lay down and think. Glancing over at J.D.’s leather jacket hanging up outside my closet, I decide to think about where I am with J.D., and mainly think about when he came over the night of the drive-in. I was scared of having to deal with those emotions on my own and felt as if I needed J.D. there with me, but it was much more intense than what I know would be normal, like if I didn’t have J.D. with me right then I wouldn’t be able to cope on my own. Now that I think about it, after every single emotional problem I have encountered since I met J.D., I’ve ran to J.D. for help.

When it all boils down, I’m beginning to fear that much like J.D. had become dependent on my presence around him, I was developing a dependence on him. No, I wasn’t beginning to fear this, I was beginning to realize this. I couldn’t even see him go back to his house because I would have to spend the night alone which I have virtually always done up until I met him. And I know through what J.D. did when he became incredibly dependent on me, that this isn’t okay. I decide to treat this sleepover as a break from J.D.. Not that I want one, but because I know that if I don’t fix this right now it’s going to end up somehow intensely hurting me, maybe even J.D..

I look over to my bedside clock and see that it is already 5:00, but I still have a little over an hour before I need to have mother drive me to Heather’s house. I decide to do some more crocheting and pack my overnight bag, just simple tasks to get my mind off of J.D. for once.

The distraction works for a while, in fact, it works a little too well because in what felt like no time an hour and a half had already past. I rush to put on my shoes and grab my bag before going downstairs and finding mother in the living room.

“It’s time to go to Heather’s house.” I inform her, rocking back and forth on my heels.

“Of course, we will go now.”

***

“Oh hello darling, you must be Veronica.” Mrs. Duke smiles after opening the front door.

“Yes, ma'am.” I respond politely.

“Come on inside, the other girls have already arrived. Here, let me show you up to Heather’s room.” She offers, stepping to the side of the door so I can walk in and leading me up the stairs. She opens a bedroom door to reveal four girls all head to toe in one particular color sitting on the floor conversing.

“Veronica, finally.” Heather Chandler smiles as I step into the room.

“Hello, Heather. Oh, and thank you, Mrs. Duke.” I respond to Heather and praise Heather’s mother.

“Of course. Do you girls need anything?” She asks before stepping back out. We all shake our heads no just before she closes the door and walks back downstairs. Heather Duke’s Mother is the perfect idea of a housewife from a magazine; always properly dressed, neat hair, an excellent and welcoming host.

I go to sit down with the other girls and have Heather McNamara kindly introduce me into the conversation. For once in my entire life, it isn’t a conversation that revolves around talking rudely of other girls and isn’t about boys, well, not exactly.

“But that’s not their job, it’s the job of a wife to make sure the kids are well mannered.” Heather Chandler attempts to explain her viewpoint to Heather Duke.

“Yes, but a child’s actions aren’t proper representations of their parents beliefs. Just look at Veronica, her mother is all proper, not to mention her family is very wealthy, but Veronica is still dating that Jason Dean guy.” Heather Duke counters back as if I wasn’t even sitting there and to be honest it kind of hurt. I almost actually wished we were talking about gossip instead.

“Alright, whatever.” Heather Chandler sighs, giving up on the conversation which causes Heather McNamara to start up another.

“Did you guys hear about that protest just outside of our county limits where a bunch of the protesters were attacked and then went to jail?” She asks and I remember exactly what she is talking about.

“Yes, but they let everyone go. There were no other witnesses for the start of it and everyone had different stories. Nobody was hurt badly and I guess the police station didn’t care that much so they just dropped it.” Heather Duke shrugs. If I were to say any one of the Heathers were the least racist, I would say it was Heather Duke. Heather Chandler and, as much as I love her, Heather McNamara aren’t the most intelligent and as long as they aren’t directly affected they probably won’t care much, but Heather Duke is well read and smart enough to know how ignorant racism is, even in the small town of Sherwood in 1959.

“Oh well, I guess it doesn’t really matter any more then.” Heather Chandler sighs, proving my assumption I had just made about her.

The rest of the night could then be summed up as discussions of other girls attire, which then led into Heather Chandler going into Heather Duke’s closet and pointing out the things she doesn’t like, complimenting and insulting the male student body of Westerburg High, which then led into many rude comments about my relationship with J.D. and my choice to go steady with him, and then finally the peace of going to sleep, which meant the diminishing of the internal flame of chaos inside each of the three girls in this room with me.


	32. Chapter 32

Even after returning back home from the long nights sleep at Heather Duke’s house, I still feel exhausted. Less physically, more mentally exhausted. I look over at my clock as I drop my overnight bag down on the floor and see that it’s only 11:00 and J.D. shouldn’t be coming for at least another hour.

I give a sigh of relief as I fall back onto my bed, needing to just rest for a few minutes. That rest quickly turns into an hour-long nap which is ultimately disturbed by the ringing of my phone. I shoot up on the bed and quickly answer it, guessing that it may be J.D..

“Hello?” I ask, lifting the phone to my ear.

“Veronica, thank god it’s you. I assume your home?” I hear J.D. say on the other line.

“Yes, and I assume you want to come pick me up.” I reply, attempting to guess what his next sentence would entail.

“You would be correct. I’ll be there in five minutes, does that sound alright?” He asks. I reply yes before realizing that I now have five minutes to look presentable and to ask mother for permission to even see J.D..

I stand up and rush to sit down at my dressing table where I quickly brush my hair and pin the sides back. I slide on a pair of shoes before running downstairs to find mother, whom I soon discover sitting on the back porch.

“Uh, hello mother. Would it be alright if J.D. came to pick me up and we went out?” I ask for permission. Mother closes her eyes and sighs before looking up at me.

“I suppose, but I wish to have a conversation about him with you when you get back.” Mother replies. I nod and thank her before returning back upstairs to retrieve J.D.’s jacket, he’s probably been missing it. I run downstairs for the final time and wait for J.D.’s arrival. I begin to grow anxious and excited about what this surprise may possibly be.

The doorbell soon rings and I promptly answer it. Standing on the other side is, to a small amount of shock, J.D.. The little shock comes from the fact that it’s barely 60 degrees outside and he’s wearing a t-shirt and jeans. I suppose he may only own this one jacket.

“Oh my goodness, you must be freezing.” I worry as I step out onto the porch with him, handing him the leather jacket. “Why on earth would you give me this jacket if you don’t have any other?” I ask him.

“It seemed to make you happy, so being cold for a just few days was completely worth it.” He laughed, dodging the slight severity of the situation.

“You’re mad.” I smile as he puts his jacket back on. We walk over to his bike and hop on before riding back to his house. Naturally, his father isn’t home but it’s only noon so he is most likely actually at work. “So, what is this surprise you have for me?” I ask as we enter his house.

“Oh, you remembered.” He awkwardly laughs as we walk into the living room.

“Well of course.” I smile. Once we reach the couch J.D. turns to face me before speaking.

“Sit, I’ll be back in one moment.” He instructs, confusing me even further. Regardless, I comply with his request and sit down on the couch before he runs off to some other room connected to the kitchen. He returns a few seconds later with a hand behind his back.

I don’t speak as he sits down on the couch next to me, instead, I give an excited yet confused look. He gives a nervous laughing sigh before beginning to speak. “I assume, well I hope, that by now you know how important you are to me. I’ve never been or felt closer to anyone ever before. I want you to think of this as, say, a replacement for the leather jacket. Now, no matter where you go, you never have to be scared about being alone because part of me is with you. To sum it up, I know that we’ve been going steady and I thought we should make it completely official.” J.D. says to me, placing his hand in front of me and opening a small black box to reveal a gorgeous gold ring.

I almost jump backwards as I gasp, looking down in awe at the ring. Before even considering reaching down for it, I lean forwards and wrap my hand around the back of J.D.’s neck as I press my lips against his. I pull away and smile at him before he reaches out for my hand. He takes the ring out of the box and slides it onto my left ring finger.

I take a moment to lift my hand and examine the absolutely beautiful ring. It was an outline of a teardrop shape in gold and in the center of that was a starburst shape made up of five little clear gems. Seeing them sparkle and knowing how big of an event this is, not to mention the fact that his father is a rather successful businessman working on a very large project, a thought struck me. “Wait, a-are they real…” I trail off, hoping he’ll understand me.

“Yes, Veronica, they’re real diamonds.” J.D. smiles lightly, no doubt watching the happiness in my eyes. I knew that his father made good money and didn’t have much else to spend it on, I had collected that from J.D.’s motorcycle, but I didn’t know he made that much.

“No, no, no, this is far too much for me to accept.” I stutter, realizing that this must have cost at least twenty-five dollars, easily making it the most expensive single item I own. I go to take it off and hand it back to J.D. but he places his hand over mine, stopping me.

“Veronica, it’s fine. As long as you wear this ring you’re mine, and I’d like that to last at least a little while.” J.D. laughs in response. Him referring to me as his reminds me of something, something I wanted to talk to him about.

“J.D., do you mind if we have a rather serious discussion? Don’t worry, it doesn’t involve the ring or anything threatening us being together.” I request of him. I didn’t want to worry him about the conversation being serious so I felt the need to give that explanation.

“Yes, of course, what is it?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some clarification: when Veronica says “you’re mad” it’s as in crazy not angry, also $25 in 1959 = ~ $215 in 2018
> 
> Edit: the ring is not an engagement ring!!! It was common back then that when two people were going steady, the guy would give the girl a ring of some sort (sometimes a school ring, typically he would buy her one though). It is just a going steady ring. I just included the diamond detail because my grandmother told me that her going steady ring my grandfather got her was diamond and because it will come up again next chapter when Ronnie is talking to her mother.
> 
> Next chapter gets a lil bit emotional, but we find out why Veronica’s mom dislikes J.D. so much! I know a few of you have been commenting about that so next chapter (or maybe the one after that) explains it all!


	33. Chapter 33

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is dedicated to @ask-veronica-sawyer-heathers on tumblr for leaving such sweet messages in my inbox and also to @scouts_mockingbird on here and on tumblr because the conversation Ronnie has with her mother at the end is very Aunt Alexandra-esque

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter kind of starts up in the middle of a conversation that began last chapter so if you have forgotten the ending of the last chapter, I suggest that you go back and read the last paragraph or two

"I thought about this the night after the drive in and just yesterday. I'm scared that I've become dependent on you, like, emotionally dependent." I vaguely explain to him but J.D. doesn't appear to catch on.

"What do you mean?" He asks unsurprisingly.

"That night of the drive-in after I called you and you came over and talked to me, you went to leave but I couldn't handle it. I ran over to you and stopped you from leaving, you had to give me your jacket for it to be okay. I couldn't cope with what happened on my own, I felt the need for you to be there with me." I elaborate on the subject.

"Well, why is that a bad thing? I'm always going to be here for you so you needing me is fine, in fact, it's good. It makes me feel like I have a purpose." J.D. informs me on his perspective on the matter.

"J.D., you can always find a purpose in me, that is good, but it needs to be in moderation. If I simply want you and you help me, that still gives you a purpose, but needing you, while it still gives you a purpose, makes me unstable. We don't know that you're always going to be here, I could also move. I need to be able to handle some of my stuff on my own, and for a while there I wasn't able to. Don't worry, I'm still going to be very open with you about my life, and I hope you will be open with me about yours. Now that I've said all this I'm not quite sure what the purpose of the conversation was..." I trail off, laughing slightly about me not thinking this through.

"No, no, thank you for telling me this, I truly appreciate your sincerity and openness." J.D. smiles, taking my hand in his. "Say, why don't we go out to Rosie's and just forget about all of these troubling matters for a while?" He suggests.

"That sounds quite fun." I reply, standing up from the couch at the same time as him. We go outside to his motorcycle so we can drive off to Rosie's. Since it was just me and J.D., we sit at the bar instead of a booth.

"So, I know I said this was to forget about our troubles, but what is the current standpoint of your parents when it comes to my presence around you?" J.D. asks me. "I'm only bringing this up because, well, I believe that we are pretty serious now." His words suddenly remind me of what mother requested just before I left today.

"Well, I did tell mother that I was actually going to be with you today and she gave me permission, but just before I left she told me that when I get back she wants to talk to me about you." I inform him, suddenly being filled with dread and worry at the thought of conversing, more accurately arguing, with mother about J.D. yet again.  
"Oh, Veronica, I didn't mean to remind you of that if you were trying to forget about it." J.D. quickly begins apologizing.

"Oh, no, don't worry. It's not a problem, even if it were one it wouldn't be your fault." I smile in an attempt to make him feel better. Before our conversation could continue a waitress came to take our orders.

We then spend the rest of our afternoon chit chatting over burgers and Coke floats. At the end of our date, which lasts nearly an hour, J.D. picks up the tab and drives me back home. I thank him for the date before walking back inside my house, bracing myself for the conversation with mother. Per usual, I find her sat on the couch watching the news on tv and crocheting some new piece. Doilies were her favorite, and our house was covered in them. Turns out that when you're the housewife of a decently self-sufficient family, you have a lot of free time.

"Oh, Veronica, you're back." Mother smiles, placing her work down in the basket on the floor. "Come sit." She requests as she scoots over and pats a spot on the couch right next to her. I do as instructed silently. "I suppose you remember what I told you before you left?"

"Yes." I quietly reply as I fidget with my hands in my lap.

"I assume you think that I'm trying to keep you away from that boy because I'm some horrible mother, after all, you're just a teenager and that's how teenagers think." Mother prefaces the lecture she is about to give. Her words are quite degrading but I attempt to brush them off, knowing that what she's said isn't true. I'm not sure why she dislikes me seeing J.D., she's never actually said why. "But that's simply not true. Even though you are just a teenager I do think you will be able to understand what I am about to explain to you: family pride." She says and it takes all of my power to not roll my eyes. Quite frankly, I couldn't care less about my surname. "Back in the 1870s, the Sawyers were one of the first families to arrive in Sherwood, they were easily the wealthiest of all of the families to first arrive. The name Sawyer in this town should attract more respectable men with rich family history."

"And you assume that just because J.D. wears leather jackets and drives a motorcycle he is not a respectable person?" I ask, not caring how rude I sound.

"People who carry themselves in that manner tend to not be." Mother shrugs. I know she is wrong but there is only one thing I can say to someone with the opinions on wealth and family like mother to prove them wrong. Pushing back the disgust for what I'm about to say, I raise my left hand up to mother's face.

"Mother, this is the diamond ring J.D. gave to me as a going steady ring. Would you like to know what he said when he gave it to me?" I ask rhetorically, not waiting for an answer before continuing speaking. "He said whenever I'm alone I don't have to be scared because now a part of him is with me. Now, may I ask, what kind of disrespectful man lacking wealth would give this diamond ring with such meaning simply to a girlfriend?"

Mother pauses before picking up on her side in the conversation. "I see." She quietly replies, realizing that she had been wrong about J.D..

"Mother, I really like J.D. and I am not prepared to nor do I plan to end my relationship with him just because of the fact that our family has been here possibly the longest. It means virtually nothing now. And do you recall asking me to have a conversation with him about my limits? Well, I did, and the entire time he sat and listened and in later... situations he abided by everything I had requested of him." I state my ground.

"Alright then. I suppose I did not accurately understand,” She pauses before continuing “J.D.'s personality." Mother finally gives up on her grudge against him. It felt strange to hear her refer to him as J.D. instead of Jason. "Veronica, you have my permission to continue seeing him." Mother finishes the conversation and I smile widely.

"Thank you." I reply, leaning forward and hugging her. I have never until right now, stood up for something so strongly, not caring if I sounded rude or disrespectful and it truly paid off. I may have to start doing this more often.


	34. Chapter 34

Monday arrived far too quickly, and returning to school after a week-long break caused everyone to appear slightly more sluggish than they would be on a usual Monday. Waiting for the Heathers to arrive at the lunch table, I decide to retrieve my diary from my backpack and record the events from the previous few days in an attempt to kill time.

Just as I'm finishing writing about mother finally giving me permission to be with J.D., Heather Chandler says my name as she sits down in front of me. "Yes?" I reply, putting my belongings back into my backpack.

"Halloween is in less than two weeks and Ram typically has a Halloween party every year but his father recently caught him sneaking out at night, not to mention that he had a backpack full of liquor with him, so he's basically on house arrest, so no party this year." She explains to me with a slightly over dramatic sigh.

"Ouch, how much trouble is he in?" I ask, not really caring about Ram's well being but just attempting to entertain the subject.

"No phone, no friends over, no going out. I think he said it was only for a week or something but the odds of his father letting him host a party in two weeks are slim to none." Heather continues. While she was talking the other two arrives at the table.

"Oh, Ram told me this morning, it's awful, isn't it? We're sixteen years old and we're going to be spending an infamous party night at home." Heather Duke complains. Her selfishness was jaw-dropping, her boyfriend was just put on lockdown and instead of worrying about how she will talk to him or his well being she's worried about not having a party to go to.

"Well, why doesn't Kurt have one?" I ask the group openly. They all look at me as if I had just asked what one plus one was.

"Oh, remember, she left early." Heather Chandler says to the others and they all nod, still leaving me confused. "The night of Kurt Kelly's homecoming party the neighbors called the police on a noise complaint, it was after you had your little episode and left." She continues her explanation with obvious disgust in her eyes. "When his father came back the next day the cops had to come back to their house and tell him everything, I guess after that Kurt's dad has never left Kurt home alone again."

"Good call." Heather McNamara laughs. I had never heard of a party that got so out of control the police were called, I guess I'm glad I left when I did. I assume everyone kept the details to themselves because they didn't want a bad reputation. Lunch continues on with the same boring conversations which I attempt to tune out, and it works. The rest of the school day after lunch felt as slow as the first half, and when I arrived at home I took a short nap to regain some energy.

When I wake up, my eyes divert to a scrapbook lying on the ground beside my dressing table. Not fully remembering what it was, I walk over to it and begin to flip through. On the first page in large letters is the date 1958, presumably from my freshman year. As I continue to look through it, I realize that in over half of the pictures in here of me I am joined by Betty Finn. I also realize that I haven't even spoken to her in over six weeks.

Feeling incredibly guilty, I rush over to my phone and flip through my personal little phone book. Betty's number is the first one. I call her number and am absolutely delighted when I hear her voice on the other end.

"Hello Betty, it's Veronica." I smile.

"Oh my goodness, hi Veronica. I haven't spoken to you in a while, how are you?" She asks kindly.

"I believe a more accurate statement is that I haven't spoken to you in a while. I'm doing quite well, thank you for asking. You know, I thought it would be nice to catch up in person, maybe over a game of croquet at my house?" I offer.

"That sounds wonderful, I will go ask my father if he can drive me over to your house and then I’ll call you right back to verify." Betty responds before hanging up the phone. It's wonderful to hear her voice again, and I haven't heard her that excited in a long time. She calls back a few minutes later and informs me that she will be at my house soon.

I know that J.D. should be calling sometime soon per usual and even though mother just gave me permission to be with him, I don't want him to be forced into a conversation with her because I am outside with Betty. I flip through my book to find his number and call him. To my demise, his father picks up the phone and I have to ask him to speak to J.D..

"Hello?" I hear J.D. say on the other line a few seconds later.

"Hello J.D., it's Veronica." I smile, enjoying the sound of his voice.

"Oh hi, how are you?" He asks. He sounds glad to speak to me which ironically makes me sad because I have to make this a quick conversation.

"I'm doing just fine. I wanted to call you right now because Betty, an old friend of mine, is coming over. We will be outside and I didn't want you to call and then have my mother pick up, even though she's now okay with you." I quickly explain, remembering how absolutely delighted J.D. was last week when I told him I was actually allowed to see him now.

"Okay, thank you for telling me. I'll talk to you tomorrow, I guess. Goodbye, Ronnie." J.D. replies. I say goodbye too before hanging up the phone. I slide on a pair of shoes and go downstairs to wait for Betty's arrival, and to actually tell mother that Betty is coming over.

I find her in the kitchen, just now starting to prepare dinner. "Mother, I invited Betty over for a few rounds of croquet before dinner, is that alright?" I ask, silently praying that she'll say yes.

"Of course it is, I haven't seen Betty in a while." She smiles. I think about going out back to set up a croquet game but Betty should be here any minute so I decide against it. Less than two minutes after asking mother for permission to have Betty over, the front doorbell rings. I rush over to answer it and, to no surprise, Betty was standing just outside.

"Hi, come on in." I greet her, leading her into my house.

"I told my father to pick me up in a little less than an hour, is that alright?" She asks as we walk right back outside through my back door. To my surprise, a game of croquet is already set up in the backyard. I guess this was the new norm with the Heathers. We walk over to the stand of mallets and croquet balls and I, almost by instinct, pick up a blue one as Betty picks up an orange one.

"I really missed you, Veronica. I-I know I'm not as exciting as your other friends." Betty smiles shyly as we begin the game.

"That is so not true. I'm really sorry Betty, about sort of distancing myself from you. I've just had a lot going on with the Heathers and J.D.." I reply in a sad attempt to excuse myself from something inexcusable.

"Oh, I'd heard about you and J.D.. What's going on with him, how is he like?" She continues the conversation as we play the game.

"He's swell, always really sweet to me, caring too." I inform her, sparing the details.

"That sounds nice. I've never really had a boyfriend before. I mean, I've dated Al Springer a few times but majority of which were all total disasters." Betty laughs at her own misfortunes. We continue on with playing until about forty-five minutes goes by and mother comes out back to tell us that Betty's father is here. Being with Betty for the first time in weeks reminded me how absolutely wonderful and kind she is, I'll need to see her more often and a refresher from the whirlwind of the Heathers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just a little refresher since this chapter has some things that would be considered “odd” in our society- “dating” back then was simply the act of going on a date, and as for the cops at the hoco party, parties back then were normally some kids playing music and dancing, not drinking and doing drugs like nowadays, so the cops being called would have been very unusual and having been at a party like that would have damaged your reputation because it wasn’t really “cool” to do things like that back then


	35. Chapter 35

Seeing Betty after a long time of being surrounded by the Heathers reminded me of how sweet Betty is. Conversely, seeing the Heathers after spending time with Betty reminds me of how unpleasant the Heathers can be.

"She was wearing a shiny white skirt without a single petticoat underneath, it looked like she was wearing a wet plastic bag." Heather Chandler laughs as we slide into our regular booth at Rosie's for our regular Tuesday milkshakes. "I mean you saw her, right Veronica?"

"Can't say I did." I sigh with a fake laugh. These milkshakes trips were beginning to be more so burdens than a fun date; I've been feeling as if I'm walking on eggshells with the Heathers, at least Heather Chandler. I'm constantly having to keep myself in check in fear of being kicked out and falling back to the bottom of the Westerburg High Hierarchy, and I'm getting quite tired of it. Spending time with these girls leaves me more emotionally drained than it should. Well, I'm going to J.D.'s house after this, so I at least have that to look forward to.

"Be glad, it was a disaster." Heather Duke smiles, so doubt in a desperate attempt to suffice Heather Chandler. I, again, fake laugh before starting up a conversation with Heather McNamara.

"So, how have you been doing recently?" I ask her with a genuine smile. With Heather McNamara, I could relax and have a casual conversion and that was such a relief.

"I have a secret. Well, more accurately a surprise." Heather responds, slightly dismissing my original question.

"What is it?" I ask, grinning madly, playing into the childlike game she just began.

"Do you remember Doug Hilton, the boy I went to the homecoming with?" She continues. I nod silently. "Well, we've been going on a lot of dates and Jennifer Forbes told me that Doug mentioned to her that he may ask me about going steady."

"Oh my goodness! Heather, that's wonderful. All four of us have boyfriends now." I congratulate her and point out a slightly humorous detail.

"Oh, Heather didn't tell you? Heather Duke and Ram broke up. Apparently when Dennis was out with his girlfriend at the drive-in he saw Ram in his car with a girl that definitely wasn't Heather. Not to get too into detail, but I heard there was some pretty heavy petting going on." Heather explains, keeping her voice low so Heather Duke can't hear her. "See, I said it was still kind of a secret because I didn't want Heather to feel bad for being the only one to not be going steady with anybody." She continues with her explanation. Heather McNamara can, ironically, be quite caring when gossiping. At least more caring than the other two girls in the booth with us.

"Oh, I understand. Well, if I were you, I would wait until you and Doug had the actual conversation before saying anything. Was Heather Duke really upset about what Ram did?" I ask Heather.

"Well, originally she was, of course. I think she may have gone to Heather Chandler first to talk about it but Heather kind of dismissed her so she came to me. It happened a little over a week ago, and I think she may already be over it." Heather informs me. How these girls retain so much detail about drama is beyond me. It's in situations like this where I do feel bad for Heather Duke. Her boyfriend cheated on her and Heather Chandler just ignored her. "Poor little Heather." Heather McNamara sighs, closing off our conversation.

"Oh, goodie, here are our drinks." Heather Chandler grins as the waitress returns with our regular milkshakes and regular fries on our regular Tuesday trip to Rosie's. It was like clockwork, as if I needed anything more to make this group friendship feel more like a job. I sigh and try to brush it off; in less than two or so hours I'll be taking a vacation to The Twilight Zone.

***

"I think this will only be about the third time I've ever been to your house and your father was actually home." I laugh as J.D. and I walk up to the front door of his house.

"I suppose so." J.D. returns the laugh as we walk inside. I follow beside him into the kitchen where he gets out two bottles of Coca-Cola and pops off the lids. He hands one to me as we walk over to his couch. He turns on the television and within a few minutes, the opening for The Twilight Zone begins.

Shortly thereafter the episode ends and we both sit in silence for a minute, which had become something of a habit, in a state of confusion and slight uncomfortability that was induced by the episode. "Well that was strange, as always." J.D. smiles, breaking the silence.

"It was indeed," I respond, turning myself on the couch so that I'm now facing him. "So, what has life been like for you recently?"

"It's been decent. Pretty much the same as always, maybe a little better." J.D. shrugs. I notice his gaze flicking back and forth from my eyes to my lips, making me blush. He takes my left hand in his and looks down at it, brushing his thumb overtop the ring he had given me. "Maybe a lot better." He smiles as he leans forward and kisses me, placing his other hand behind my back.

I take my free hand and run my fingers through his hair, pulling him slightly closer to me. As J.D. was sliding his hands from behind my back to the sides of my waist, a door in the house opens loudly, causing us to quickly separate.

"Ah, and she's back." I hear J.D.'s father comments from the foyer. Neither J.D. nor I respond. "What, you can't fucking talk to me in front of her?" He laughs, shocking me. An adult had never used that language in front of me.

"Yes, I can. She was just about to leave." J.D. responds as he stands up from the couch. He places his hand out in front of me and I accept it as I stand up too.

"She always seems to leave whenever I show up. Why is that, Jason?" His father asks in a rude tone as he cracks the top off of a glass bottle, no doubt a bottle of beer. I try to not get involved in the matter by keeping my head down.

"I think we both know the answer to that." J.D. responds firmly. I glance up for a second and see that his father looks infuriated. J.D. quickly escorts me outside, sighing as he closes the front door behind us.

"I-I'm sorry if I started something." I say, feeling the odd need to apologize.

"No, don't say you're sorry. It's just- he's..." J.D. trails off. I wouldn't know what to say if I were in his position either. I step forward and wrap my arms around him in a hug which he soon reciprocates. It was sort of a nonverbal way of saying sorry again, but this time apologizing for the actions of his father rather than mine. "Just, don't worry about it. I'll go ahead and take you home." J.D. breaks the silence, pulling away from me.

As we walk over to his motorcycle I come across a bit of confusion; I don't know what he was telling me to not worry about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another little 1950′s tidbit to clear up any confusion that may have occurred in the scene involving J.D.’s dad (speaking of which, shitty foreshadowing™ 2.0), it wasn’t proper to curse in front of a lady back then, especially a young lady. Of course, the teens do every so often because, well, they’re teens, but it was highly highly frowned upon for an adult to curse in front of a lady


	36. Chapter 36

Friday seems to drag along just as slowly as Monday had, probably due to the anticipation of the weekend. Majority of the Westerburg student body seemed to not be too affected, seen as the cafeteria was filled with loud energetic conversations.

"First lunchtime poll after fall break." Heather Chandler smiles, slapping a piece of paper and a clipboard down on our table. "Are you ready?"

"I think I'll pass on it today." I sigh, not having the emotional energy to walk around the room engaging in conversation with virtually every single student.

"That wasn't a request, Veronica." Heather sighs, her smile quickly fading.

"And my denial wasn't either." I snap back, quickly realizing what a mistake it was to mouth off.

"Get up." She replies. Her face showed no obvious emotion but her tone was terrifying.

"What?" I reply, not knowing if she was forcing me to do the poll with her or something else.

"Get up." She says again. "You're not sitting here, go find somewhere else."

I sigh and attempt to prevent myself from rolling my eyes. Picking up my tray, I stand up and scan around the room. I quickly find J.D. sitting by himself in a corner opposite the cafeteria doors and beeline over to him.

"Wow, you're choosing to sit at the social pariah table?" J.D. laughs as I sit down next to him, but his humorous comment doesn't yield a great effect on my current mood.

"It's not like I had much of a choice." I complain.

"What, did something happen?" He asks, his voice changing to be much more serious.

"Heather Chandler happened. I was just in a mood. She told me it was time for the lunchtime poll and I said I wasn't going to do it so she made me leave." I explain to him.

"Speak of the devil, well, devils." I hear J.D. say with a potentially troublesome smile. I look up and am met with none other than the Heathers.

"Hello there, would you two care to answer this week's lunchtime poll?" Heather Chandler asks as if we were complete strangers.

"Oh, we would love to." J.D. responds on behalf of both of us, putting stress on every single one of the words. I can practically feel tension building around me.

"This is a repeat question from the first week of school to see if anyone's opinions have changed." Heather Chandler prefaces as she places her pen against the paper to start writing.

"Oh, and not because you're bland personality and incompetence prevented you from coming up with any original ideas?" J.D. asks sarcastically and it takes all of my strength to stop myself from laughing. Heather gives him a disgusted look but asks the actual question as if he hadn't said anything.

"You inherit $600,000 the day aliens land on earth and say they're going to blow it up in two days. What do you do with the money?" She asks. Almost immediately J.D. responds.

"Hmm, that depends. How much money would it take to euthanize three teenage girls?" J.D. questions Heather Chandler, a wicked smile playing on his lips, causing me to laugh. The other two, who were standing behind Heather Chandler, looked as if they took slight offense. "You can go now." J.D. responds, clearly stating his ground.

"Oh my goodness, they're never going to let that go." I sigh, looking over at J.D.. I'm torn between continuing to laugh at his hilarious comments and becoming terrified of what Heather is going to say or do to me later because of this conversation.

"Oh no, did I create a problem between you two?" J.D. asks me as he places a hand on my shoulder, seeming slightly concerned.

"No, no, I gave her a reason to come over here in the first place." I brush it off. "And your responses were really funny." I smile. "Don't worry, I'll deal with it later."

***

The weekend passed by far too quickly, and was then followed by another slow Monday, and as Tuesday rolled around I found myself back at a familiar place: in a booth with three other girls at Rosie's Place drinking milkshakes. Unfortunately, I hadn't dealt with what happened in the cafeteria last Friday and apparently, that wasn't settling well with Heather Chandler.

"So, Veronica, how have you and psycho been?" Heather Chandler asks very passive aggressively. I try to reply calmly but her making fun of J.D. puts me on the defensive.

"Heather, he made a joke." I sigh in response.

"He threatened to kill us." Heather violently overreacts to the situation.

"Whatever." I mumble, trying the avert the topic of discussion away from the incident with the lunchtime poll. Apparently, that wasn't the response that Heather was hoping for.

"You should be apologizing you idiot!" Heather snaps at me, keeping her voice low as to not cause a scene but it just caused her tone to even further represent that of a snake.

"I'm sorry." I lie, making it sound as sincere as possible.

"Do you know how lucky you are that I even let you stay after your fit at Kurt Kelly's homecoming party? The only reason you're not back to being some social plebe is because you have some use, unlike these two." Heather continues with her verbal harassment, deeply insulting the other two Heathers. "I swear to god Veronica, you step out of line one more time and you're cut. If you think I'm kidding, just try it."

Her final words left a deep mark on me. Westerburg was brutal and nobody had ever risen to be level with the Heathers and were then kicked back down towards the bottom. In fact, if that were to happen to me, I would create a new low. Not just a nobody, I would be an ex-somebody. If I ever felt as if I were walking on eggshells 24/7, it was now, and it was terrifying.


	37. Chapter 37

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We've been in a sort of comment-slump recently so if y'all have any opinions on the book or anything about it that you wish to talk about, go ahead and comment and I will reply as soon as possible!

The effect of Heather Chandler's cruel threats stuck with me up until Wednesday afternoon and I felt as if I had to discuss them with somebody. Of course, my almost natural and immediate feeling was to talk to J.D. about it. At the moment, he was the only social and emotional constant in my life. The Heathers could kick me out literally any second and I would become the scum of the school and Betty had gotten her own friends in the past few weeks so we may not get along over long periods of time as well as we used to. It was high school, and we had known these people since kindergarten. Cliques have been developing for nearly a decade and none of them were too eager to welcome outsiders, especially outsiders like me. The only person I knew would never leave me was J.D., and that may only be because he doesn't have anywhere else to go.

I come to the conclusion that I want to talk to J.D. about all of this so I reach over to my phone and dial his number. He answers his phone quickly.

"Hello, J.D.. It's Veronica." I reply to his greeting.

"How are you? I was just about to call you." J.D. laughs on the other end. He sounded eager to talk to me which made me smile.

"I'm doing okay. Um, I was wondering if we could talk about something, you know, in person." I hint around my request, sounding quite awkward.

"Of course. I'll be at your house in about five minutes." He replies almost reflexively, probably not feeling the need to say goodbye because I'll be seeing him very shortly. It was very comforting at the moment to see how he cared about me. I slide my shoes back on and go downstairs to tell mother that J.D. is coming over. I could just slip outside to talk to him but it was cold and there is no longer any reason to hide him. Naturally, I find mother in the kitchen preparing dinner.

"Mother, is it alright if J.D. comes over? I wish to discuss something with him." I request.

"Of course." Mother smiles kindly, an oddly new response. "Where will you two go to talk?"

"I was assuming my bedroom, if that's alright." I inform her and her facial expression leads into one of slight contemplation.

"That's alright, dear. Just keep your bedroom door open." She responds, and it is quite clear that her feeling the need to clarify that last sentence made her quite uncomfortable. Other than setting limits, mother and I have never really discussed sexual topics and it made me uncomfortable too.

"Yes, ma'am." I reply softly before going to sit down in the dining room and await the ring at the doorbell. It soon occurs and I go to answer it. "J.D., come inside." I smile, greeting him. I open the door widely to give him access to walk in. "Here, uh, follow me." I instruct slightly uncomfortably, suddenly realizing that I'm actually going to have to talk to him about this very vulnerable topic. He walks up the stairs behind me and I lead him into my bedroom, somewhere I believe he's never been.

"So, what's going on that you want to talk about? A-Are you okay?" He asks me as I sit down on my bed and motion for him to do the same.

"I know there was an incident involving you last Friday in the lunchroom but, don't worry about it, none of this is at all your fault." I reassure him before beginning my explanation. "I'm terrified. Ever since I joined the Heathers I've been walking on eggshells to not ruin my relationship with them and this past week I've been tripping and falling. Just yesterday Heather Chandler threatened to kick me out. Now I know you haven't been at Westerburg very long so you may not really know how the social system works, but it's brutal. If they kick me out, I won't just go back to being a nobody, I'll be an ex-somebody. That'll be a first for Westerburg. When I thought about that, I realized that the only real constant I have in my life is you." I explain to him, telling him so much emotional information that he no doubt doesn't quite know how to respond.

"If you're looking for advice, I'm not sure if I'm the best person to be talking to." J.D. replies, slightly awkwardly.

"No, no I'm not." I laugh. "I don't know, it's just- I'm scared, something may go wrong soon and I wanted you to know what's going on in my life. I-I just guessed that you would want to know." I elaborate on my previous explanation, trailing off towards the end. J.D. loosely smiles back at me as he takes one of my hands in his.

"Thank you for telling me. You're right, I do want to know." He informs me, probably not knowing how much of an impact that the care and thankfulness he was expressing was having on me. It made me feel like I belonged somewhere, it made me feel wanted. "If you ever want to talk about something they say to you, or if something goes wrong and you need a place to go, I'll always be here."

I take a breath before responding but before I can get any words out we both hear mother calling for me downstairs, presumably for dinner. Instead of shouting back to her, I lean forward and hug J.D.. He wraps his arms around me and kisses my forehead.

"I guess you better be leaving soon, huh?" I joke as we pull apart and stand up from the bed.

"I guess so." He responds softly as we make our way down the stairs.

"Goodbye, J.D.." I say as I open the front door for him.

"Goodbye, Ronnie." He reciprocates before leaning down and kissing me. I watch him walk down the driveway to his motorbike before closing the front door and going into the kitchen where I find mother taking off her apron.

"So, what were you two talking about?" She smiles, showing genuine interest in J.D. which is also something I'll have to get used to.

"Oh, nothing too important, just school stuff." I brush off the question, not wishing to get mother too involved with my dilemma involving the Heathers. She would bring it up over dinner and then father would get involved, all of which was quite unnecessary.

"Go fetch your father from out back, I have the table set." She requests and I do as told. The same old retired conversations of my schoolwork, father's businesses, and mother's girlfriends were carried on over dinner. Eventually, I am able to escape back upstairs to brainstorm ideas of how I will get out of this pit with the Heathers.


	38. Chapter 38

I enter the cafeteria the very next day and am met with all three Heathers already sitting down at the usual lunch table, looking as if they were about to interrogate me. "Are you sure you want to sit there?" Heather Chandler asks as I pull out a chair. I look at it and there is nothing on the chair so I assume it was a cruel comment referencing how she refused to let me sit with them last Friday.

I fight the urge to reply in the same tone and instead ask for permission to sit there which seemed to greatly please Heather. I take a deep breath and prepare myself to apologize for the past week in hopes of losing the constant fear of being kicked out.

"Heather?" I grab her attention.

"Yes, Veronica?" She replies, putting excess emphasis on the syllables of my name, making it sound hateful.

"I would like to apologize for how I've spoken to you the past week and what J.D. said to you three last Friday. I, and he, completely stepped out of line and I hope you can forgive me." I apologize, only dragging J.D. into the situation because I knew that, in Heather's eyes, he was my responsibility and in this situation, I was the one who should be speaking for him.

"Alright." She shrugs before continuing a conversation with Heather Duke, leaving me immensely confused. I don't know if my apology wasn't good enough, if she had forgiven me for the situation, if she wanted me to apologize more, or any other obscene response that she may have to the situation. However, I do know that if I interrupt her conversation again that she will become angry with me so I decide to leave the situation be and revisit it tomorrow.

My plans to forget the situation were foiled when, at the end of lunch, Heather McNamara approaches me and brings it up again. "Do you want me to tell Heather to let you off?" She asks, incredibly graciously.

"Y-you would actually do that?" I ask her. I thought that she may also be slightly mad at me because J.D. also insulted her last Friday.

"Of course, we're friends and I didn't take any offense from the jokes J.D. made last week." Heather replies.

"I mean, if you could that would be wonderful." I smile graciously.

"Alright, I'll talk to her about it after school." Heather says. I show my thanks by hugging her before heading off to my next class.

***

Apparently, Heather had kept her promise and told Heather to forgive me for the incidents. When I sat down at our table during lunch, I didn't even have to bring up my apology before Heather Chandler began discussing it.

"Go ahead." She said, already knowing that I was going to start spewing out 'I'm sorry's.

"Heather I messed up, I messed up a lot. I didn't realize how generous and kind you were when you let me into this group and being disrespectful towards you was completely out of line. I can promise you that nothing like that will ever happen again." I ramble on, half of which was a complete lie but it was building her ego which may help me out.

"I'm going to think about it." Heather says, another incredibly vague reply which will no doubt keep me on edge for days. I was still slightly scared that she may kick me out, but the chances of that were lowering drastically. "Oh, and we're going to Rosie's right after school today so tell your greaser scum boyfriend that you won't be riding with him." She informs me. Her word choice showed that she was still definitely mad but going to Rosie's was a chance for me to apologize some more.

Towards the end of lunch, I was able to excuse myself from our lunch table to rush over to J.D. and tell them that I won't be riding with him. He was slightly upset but told me to call him when I get back from Rosie's, which I was planning on doing anyway.

At the end of the school day, we rode in Heather McNamara's car to the familiar diner and I braced myself for the confrontation which was most likely about to occur. We took our regular booth and ordered the same snacks as always.

"So, Veronica, do you have something you would like to say?" Heather Chandler prompts me with a wicked smile. I was slightly shocked that she wanted me to apologize for the third time, I thought it would be annoying by now but I suppose not. I guess she was having fun playing this strange game.

"I would like to say that I'm sorry for the way J.D. and I talked to you last Friday, and I'm also sorry for taking so long to apologize. I should've done it on Tuesday when we were here, like you asked of me." I reply, making sure to cover all of my bases.

"Okay." Heather states simply, but this time she seems much more pleased than in my previous attempts at apologizing. "Oh, you'll be paying for my part of the ticket today." She demands, and I was in absolutely no place to refuse. If getting back on Heather's good side just meant paying for her milkshake then I was fine.

I stayed quiet for a majority of the time in Rosie's, if I wasn't saying anything then I couldn't say the wrong thing. Nobody really invited me into a conversation, either, and I didn't want to intrude. After about thirty minutes Heather, Heather, and I split the tab before all retreating back to our homes.


	39. Chapter 39

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh boy we got some emotional shit coming up in the next, like, eight chapters

Around noon the next day, my peaceful Saturday was interrupted by a call from none other than Heather Chandler herself. "Hello Veronica, it's Heather." She begins the moment she hears me pick up the phone. I immediately become terrified because this is most likely her calling to say whether she has decided to forgive me or not.

"Oh hello Heather, how have you been?" I ask kindly, trying to put her in a good mood to show some leniency.

"Let's cut to the chase, I know why I'm calling and you probably do too." Heather replies sternly, making me become quiet. "I've decided to let you I off the hook, but Veronica I swear if you pull one more stunt that's it, you're out." She explains with a sigh.

"Oh my goodness, Heather, thank you so much!" I smile widely.

"Yeah, whatever. I'll see you on Monday." She finishes the conversation before hanging up. Right afterward I think about how J.D. may want to know, well, more acutely know that I'm not scared anymore. I call his number and silently pray that he answers instead of his father.

Apparently, the stars were aligned just right today and it was J.D. to pick up. "Hello J.D., it's Veronica. I have good news." I inform him right after he says hello.

"What is it?" He asks, a mixture of excitement and nervousness laced through his voice.

"Heather just called and I'm in the clear. She's forgiven me." I reply ecstatically.

"That's great! Well, why don't you come over to celebrate?" J.D. suggests.

"Of course. Let me guess, you'll be here in five minutes?" I reply jokingly, realizing that saying he'll be here in five minutes was basically his go-to response.

"I'm that predictable, huh?" He laughs.

"I suppose so. I'll see you in a few minutes, bye." I close off the discussion, putting my phone back down before realizing that J.D. will be here soon and I'm not properly dressed. I jump up from my bed and rush into my closet, fumbling to slide on a garter belt, my stockings, a petticoat, and a dress in such little time. I run back out and slip on my shoes as I comb my hair before going downstairs to tell mother that I'm leaving.

I almost run right into her before quickly stopping myself and regaining my balance. "May I go over to J.D.'s house?" I ask her, almost out of breath.

"Yes, be back by three." Mother replies and I turn back around to go outside. Right as I open the front door, J.D. steps onto the porch, causing me to almost run into him too.

"I'm free!" I practically shout as I wrap my arms around him. "No more apologizing every two seconds, she finally forgave me." I sigh, stepping back away from him.

“That’s great, I guess. How do you wish to celebrate?” J.D. smiles as we walk back over to his bike.

“Movies, popcorn, soda, the usual. I just need a break from everything, and I can finally have one.” I explain as I climb onto the motorcycle behind him before we speed back off to his house.

“Well, that sounds quite doable.” J.D. finally responds as we walk inside of his house. I follow beside him into the kitchen where he gets out a bag of popping corn as I get us two Coca-Colas out of the refrigerator. “So, when you say you’re in the clear, what exactly do you mean by that?”

“She forgave me. She called me and said that she was over it.” I shrug, not really knowing how to answer such a self-explanatory question.

“What is ‘it’?” J.D. continues with his strange questioning.

“Me not falling in line. Going all the way back to Kurt Kelly’s homecoming party to just last Friday with the lunchtime poll.” I explain to him.

“Wait, Kurt’s homecoming party was like two months ago, how long have you been scared about them kicking you out?”

“I guess since then, but that’s just how life with the Heathers is.” I laugh, trying to shove off any severity that may have been added to the conversation.

“Ronnie, why did you just now tell me? We could have talked about it a while ago, you’ve been going through that alone for a while.” J.D. asks, seeming much more concerned than he should be.

“J.D. it’s not that big of a deal, even if it was it would be over now. Besides, I’m good friends with Heather McNamara, and she has helped me a lot. In fact, if she hadn’t talked to Heather then she may have not forgiven me.” I inform him, hoping to relieve any worries that he may have.

“Oh, okay. Well, still, if you ever want to talk then you can always talk to me.” J.D. offers kindly.

“I know.” I reply as he empties the popcorn into a bowl for us to carry over to the couch.

“Seen as it’s All Hallows Eve-Eve, I can guess that there may be some horror movies playing on TV, does that sound alright?” J.D. asks as he turns on the television and begins to scan through the stations. I nod and he soon comes across a channel playing the beginning of Horror of Dracula, which we decide to watch.

About halfway through the movie, the sound of tires screeching comes from outside, and it sounds quite near us. “What was that?” I ask, sitting up on the couch.

“Uh, I’m not sure.” J.D. replies. I continue to look out the front door and begin to see a silhouette approaching it. I turn and see J.D. looking too, but he appears less confused and more so a mixture of fear and infuriation, like his fight or flight responses were both being triggered at the same time. “I think you ought to be going.” J.D. says as he stands up from the couch. He reaches his hand out and I accept as I stand too. As we enter the foyer the silhouette does too and soon reveals itself to be J.D.’s father. He stumbles inside as if he can barely hold himself up straight and is clearly intoxicated.

“What the fuck is she doing here?” He spits at J.D..

“She was just leaving, as always.” J.D. responds angrily.

“Hey, don’t fucking talk to me like that.” His father mumbles back before pushing past us. The entire interaction confused me and made me very uncomfortable. J.D. tightened his grip around my hand and rushed me out the front door.

“Veronica, I’m so sorry about that, I didn’t know he could be coming home soon.” He quickly apologizes. It takes me a moment to formulate a proper response.

“No don’t apologize, his actions aren’t your fault. I-Is everything alright with him?” I ask, realizing that it was only two in the afternoon and his father was drunk.

“Don’t worry about it, I can deal with it. I’m just sorry you had to see it.” J.D. laughs very uncomfortably. It’s quite obvious that the topic makes him uneasy so I don’t wish to make him discuss it any further. “Lets, uh, get you home.” He suggests as he starts walking back over to the motorbike. I walk with him and get on before he drives me right back to my home after what feels like no time.

Once we arrive, J.D. leads me up to the front door. “Hey, Veronica, I know I already mentioned it but, seriously, you don’t need to worry about him. You have your own stuff to deal with.” J.D. restates himself. Since he’s pushing so clearly that everything is okay, I believe that it truly is.

“Okay.” I respond simply. We kiss and say our goodbyes before I go back inside my house. I walk right up to my room and by dinner, I had practically lost all memory of the events involving J.D.’s father.


	40. Chapter 40

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for 100 followers over on my Tumblr @retro_pure_jdonica!! Also, we're entering some risky territory so some feedback for these next few chapters would be VERY much appreciated<3

“Oh it was so boring, but I preferred it much more than any party Kurt or Ram could’ve hosted.” Heather McNamara complains about how she spent Halloween night home alone as we enter the cafeteria. “Enough of my problems, how was your night?” She asks considerately as we enter the lunch line.

“I can’t say it was very different from yours, I just spent Halloween night at home too.” I shrug. We get our food and then go to sit down at the lunch table where Heather Chandler was sitting with her head in her hands.

“What’s the matter, Heather?” Heather McNamara asks, and I have to admit that I was quite concerned too.

“Well, since neither Kurt nor Ram had a Halloween party this year, Tommy invited me to this party at Remington and I drank a little bit too much.” She complains, rubbing her forehead to relieve tension. “But until last night I never realized that college boys were such heavy petters.” Heather laugh, shocking us.

“Heather!” I smile, taken aback by her vulgar comment.

“Calm down, I’m just kidding.” She replies with a smile as Heather Duke comes to sit alongside us. As the three of them engage in conversations of their own, I examine the room we’re in. Naturally, my eyes are almost magnetically drawn to the corner of the cafeteria in which J.D. usually sits. I see him eating alone at a table and as he lifts his head up, he reveals a large purple bruise on his temple.

“Um, I-I’ll be right back.” I stutter to the girls as I stand up and begin to walk over to J.D.. “What happened?” I ask J.D. in a serious tone the second I sit down next to him, my eyes fixating on his bruise.

“Oh, it’s nothing. I tripped and fell down in my house because I’m boarder lining incompetence and it left a bruise.” He laughs, clearly very uncomfortable.

“Well, it looks pretty bad, have you iced it or anything?” I continue with the questions.

“Yes I have, it’ll be gone in a few days. It’s just a little bruise.” He shrugs it off again. I suppose that if J.D. doesn’t think it’s a problem then I have no reason to think it’s a problem.

“Oh, okay, I’ll see you this afternoon.” I smile softly before standing up and returning to the Heathers’ table where I am sucked back into their dramatic lives.

***

Tuesday arrives rather slowly and I’m filled with a mixture of dread and happiness as the school day ends; I would be going over to J.D.’s house to watch The Twilight Zone but before that I had to attend the trip to Rosie’s for milkshakes. Upon entering the diner, Heather Chandler had taken on the responsibility of maintaining a conversation about schoolwork but as we sat down the topic quickly changed into drama. “So Heather, I guess that you’ve moved on rather quickly.” Heather Chandler smiles wickedly at Heather Duke across our booth.

“What are you talking about?” Heather Duke replies hesitantly as she begins blushing. Heather McNamara and I give each other slightly confused looks, signifying that neither one of us know what Heather is hinting around.

“I heard about you and Peter Dawson. Well didn’t he swoop in at just the right time.” Heather says, trying to press all of Heather’s buttons at once.

“Heather, that’s her decision to make.” Heather McNamara intervenes and I see Heather Duke slyly mouth the words ‘thank you’ to her.

“Well, it’s a bad one at that.” Heather Chandler replies sassily, admitting her defeat. I turn to Heather McNamara and decide to start up a conversation with her since she is always quite easy to talk to.

“So, how have you and Doug Hilton been?” I ask her with a smile. She is often asking me about J.D. and I rarely get to hear stories about her personal life so I would like to seize one right now.

“Oh, Veronica he’s so nice and sweet. He’s not like Kurt or Ram in the sense that they have this reputation or think that they’re some alpha male and it’s so easy, and simple, and calming.” Heather replies, wearing the most genuine smile I have ever seen on her. “You probably don’t want to hear me ramble though.”

“No, I actually would, if that’s alright. Tell me everything.” I request, edging her on and preparing myself for the glorious and nearing perfect stories from the life of Heather McNamara.

“Well, he likes to go out to the movies so we have a new thing where every Friday night we go out to the drive-in. Oh, and look here.” She smiles, gesturing to a thin gold necklace with a cluster of pearls in the center. “He got me this last week, just as a surprise gift.” Heather gushes on. Her life is like that of a teenage girl on a tv show: happy, carefree, and just full of life. “Now I insist that you tell me about how you and J.D. have been.”

“Well, how you and Doug have your drive in dates every Friday, J.D. and I get together every Tuesday to watch The Twilight Zone at his house so when you drop me back off at home I’ll practically be getting right back up and going.” I Inform her with a smile of excitement. “Overall we’ve been quite happy too.”

“I can drop you off at J.D.’s house if you like.” Heather McNamara offers kindly.

“Oh, would you?” I ask for reassurance and she nods happily. “There’s a payphone just outside, let me go call my mother and tell her that I won’t be coming home in between.” I inform her before taking my purse and walking just outside of the diner. I call mother and tell her that Heather will be dropping me off at J.D.’s house instead of home and, slightly surprisingly, mother is alright with it. I’m still getting used to her being accepting of J.D..

Afterward, I head back inside to our booth and see that the girls are all almost done with their drinks. I sit back down and in no more than five minutes we are splitting the tab and walking back out to Heather McNamara’s car. She drops all of the other girls off, leaving me last. I’m not sure if she did it on purpose but I’m very thankful that I was the last one because it avoided the others making unwanted comments about me visiting J.D..

“Goodbye, Heather. Thank you for the ride.” I smile before getting out of her car and walking up towards J.D.’s front door.


	41. Chapter 41

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: mentioned child abuse  
> again, we're getting to some emotional stuff so some feedback and comments would be highly appreciated!!!

After noticing that J.D.’s father isn’t home, I planned to ring the doorbell and say something along the lines of ‘surprise’ for my early appearance. I walked up to the front door, knocked, and awaited an answer as a smile formed along my lips. A few seconds later the door opens and I am faced with J.D..

Although, this isn’t the J.D. that I’m used to. This J.D. has dark purple and blue bruises trailing down from his left eye to his jaw to his shoulders and chest. This J.D. has cuts along the sides of his face, flimsily covered by band-aids. Most abnormally, this J.D. looks scared to see me.

“Oh my goodness, J.D., what happened to you?” I ask with immense concern, almost frightfully, as I step inside the house to be right next to him.

“I, uh, I was going to call you and explain. I didn’t know that you would be stopping by.” He stutters uncomfortably, closing the door beside us. “I had a small crash on my motorcycle. Don’t worry, I’m fine. Nothing too serious.” J.D. smiles weakly, continuing with his reiteration of the idea that I need not worry.

“Well, J.D., if I show up to your house and you’re hurt I’m going to be concerned regardless of how it happened,” I tell him, knitting my eyebrows as I examine all of the cuts and bruises that scatter across his upper body. “Please be more careful when you’re driving.” I request of him as I take one of his hands in mine.

“I will, I promise,” J.D. reassures me, but I can hear how quickly and nervously he’s breathing. “Well, um, we still have about thirty minutes before the show starts. Do you want to see what else is on tv?” He suggests.

He’s attempting to distract me. He turns to the side to start walking towards the living room but I keep his hand in mine and I don’t move. “J.D., are you sure that you’re alright?” I ask in the most serious tone I can muster.

“You have no need to worry; I’m fine, everything’s fine, I promise,” J.D. replies with a soft smile. His reassurance persuades me into accepting the fact that there is no serious problem with his injuries so I attempt to accept his current state of being and continue on.

“I would love to go see what else is on television, but we still have to make popcorn.” I remind him before beginning to walk into his kitchen. We’ve done this multiple times but I still don’t know where he keeps popping corn so I let him take on that job while I get out Coca-Colas for each of us. Once we have all of our food, we head over to the couch where J.D. turns on the television and flips through multiple channels before finding one that was already playing an episode of The Twilight Zone.

“Hm, I guess they may be doing a mini-marathon. I remember that this was just last week’s episode.” J.D. points out once we realize what is playing. After we watch the rerun from last week and this week’s new episode, J.D. drops me back of at my house. Once on his motorcycle, I realize that his driving is excellent and there isn’t a single scratch on his bike, which leaves me with an eerie sense of unsteadiness.

***

Even after twenty-four hours go by, I still can’t get the mental image of J.D. covered in cuts and bruises out of my head. I vie between deciding to call him or allowing his injuries to heal themselves on their own. It mustn't be easy living a life like the one J.D. was given. Having to constantly move from state to state, losing your mother at such a young age, having a father who…

I suddenly become far too aware of the energy and air surrounding me and my throat feels as if its closing up. J.D. didn’t fall. J.D. didn’t crash his motorcycle. His father hurt him. His father has been hurting him and I’ve been oblivious. The blunt realization of this is too much to take in at once and I feel like I’m about to vomit. I reach over to my bedside table and fumble to grab my contact book and call J.D.’s number. My hands shake as I lift the phone to my ear. The telephone rings and I silently pray to God that he answers. After a few seconds that feel like a few hours, I hear a pick up on the other line and a familiar voice say ‘hello’, yet it sounds completely new and foreign.

“J-J.D.?” I stutter, my voice faltering and causing the single word to sound more like a question.

“Veronica? What’s going on?” J.D. asks, clearly highly concerned. How he has the bandwidth to express concern for my well being whilst going through what he is currently going through is truly beyond my realm of comprehension.

“I need you to come over.” I state, unlike how I usually discuss our visiting, this is not a request but rather a demand.

“Okay, um, I’ll be there as soon as possible. I’ll leave right now.” He responds before quickly hanging up. The second I stop hearing his I become fearful that he may be hurt again and I won’t be there to try to stop it, or provide comfort for him.

I get up from my bed and rush downstairs to await J.D.’s arrival. The downstairs of the house was empty which only increases my fear as I quickly pace back and forth in the dining room, squeezing and releasing my hands. Suddenly, the ring of a doorbell echoes through the silent house.


	42. Chapter 42

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: child abuse mention and semi-graphic injury description

With immense hesitation, I walk over to the front door. I can hear the deafening sound of my heartbeat echoing throughout my skull, and it sounded louder than anything I’d ever heard before. Taking a deep breath, I place my hand on the handle and open the door. On the other side stands an alteration of J.D., a not only emotionally but also physically damaged J.D.. I examine his face and neck, where a few new cuts reside. Nobody had taken the time to attempt to bandage them.

I finally gather my thoughts and begin speaking; “I-I know what happened.”

J.D. begins to show a combination of fear, worry, and regret as if he were caught in a lie. “What do you mean?” He asks, clearly struggling to form words.

“Your father.” Is all I can manage to say before I begin crying silently. If I couldn’t comfort him through words, I could comfort him through actions. I step outside and throw my arms around his shoulders, pulling him as close to me as possible. He almost immediately returns the actions. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask him, my words muffled through his jacket.

“I didn’t want to worry you.” J.D. responds quietly, his voice breaking slightly. A few moments later we both pull apart from the hug.

“J.D., there are some things that you can’t deal with on your own, and that’s okay. That’s why I’m here, so that you have somebody to talk to about those things.” I attempt to explain to him, feeling myself pushing the line of starting to cry again. “You don’t have to deal with your problems all by yourself, I definitely don’t.”

“I know, I know, I’m just not used to it. But you already have your own problems, me telling you all of mine would just make you worry and you don’t need to do that.” J.D. expresses his point of view on the events. His facial expressions and tone suggest that he is on the verge of tears too.

“J.D. it is my job to worry about you. Please, come inside.” I request of him. Wrapping my fingers around one of his hands, I lead him inside of my house and up to my room. I leave him in my bedroom for just a moment as I quickly enter my bathroom to retrieve a small tin box full of hydrogen peroxide, bandages, and the like. “Sit down, please.” I instruct J.D..

Once he sits down on my bed, I sit next to him and carefully look over his larger injuries. Trailing along his hairline and his jaw were already scabbing areas where his skin had been busted open. The band-aids that had previously covered some of the older marks had since been removed. I remove the bottle of hydrogen peroxide and cotton rounds from the case and soak a few of the pads in the peroxide. “It’s going to sting.” I warn J.D. before sliding the cotton rounds over his various cuts. Each time I press the cotton to one of the marks I see him wince and I have to force myself to continue.

“Do you want to talk about it?” I ask gently as I throw away the cotton pads and begin to pick out small band-aids from the kit. J.D. shakes his head and barely audibly mutters the word ‘no’. On all of the new or very bad cuts, I cover them in Neosporin and band-aids. Once everything has been bandaged up, I lean forward and kiss his forehead. “Please stay right here, I just need to run downstairs and then I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.” J.D. responds, still very soft spoken. I run down the stairs and into the kitchen where I grab an ice pack from the freezer and a washcloth to wrap it in.

“What are you getting, Veronica?” I hear mother ask, startling me. I look up to see that at some point in the past few minutes she had moved into the living room and was now sitting on the couch reading a magazine.

I pause to quickly think of a cover story. “Oh, ran into a door frame and came to get ice for my foot.” I blatantly lie. I needed to make up something that wouldn’t lead her to want to help me or go into my room with me so I told her a slightly common injury.

“Uh oh, are you alright?” She asks, finally turning to face me.

“Yes, it just hurts a little bit.” I smile before walking away, faking a small limp. I travel back up the stairs to kind J.D. still sitting on the bed, but now fidgeting his hands anxiously.

“Hey, it’s okay.” I reassure him as I close my bedroom door and sit back down next to him. I find the darkest of the bruises and rotate the ice pack across them: one on the collarbone, one on the right side of his jaw, and a new one on his left temple.

“I should’ve told you, I know.” J.D. remarks suddenly, causing me to pull away from him.

“I know why you didn’t. It’s just- if it ever happens again, or almost happens again, or nothing happens and you just want to talk about when it did happen, I’m here for that. I’m always here for that. Anytime you need somebody, even if you just don’t want to be sitting alone and want company, you can just call me or come over. You know that, right?” I explain to J.D..

“Yes.” J.D. responds quietly after a slight pause. He leans forward and wraps his arms around me tightly and I quickly reciprocate the hug. As I rest my head on his chest, he supports his chin atop my head. There on my bed sat Jason Dean, bruises scattering across him as if they were freckles and cuts framing his face, but he remained unmoving because for one fraction of a moment he was almost okay.


	43. Chapter 43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: mentioned child abuse and semi-graphic injury description

_November 10, 1959 **  
**_

_Dear Diary,_

_It’s been a week exactly since I found out about what was happening to J.D.. Luckily, it hasn’t happened again since then and he’s almost all healed. I went out to Rosie’s again with the girls just yesterday, and the trip was quite fun. Heather McNamara and I were able to share a few laughs every now and then, and because of that, I was able to avoid being sucked into Heather Duke and Heather Chandler’s drama._

_I apologize for not writing in you as much as I used to, I’ve just had a lot going on recently. Hopefully, I will be back with more stories in the next day or two._

I record the events of the past few days in my diary before letting out a yawn and placing it back in my nightstand drawer. I stand up from my bed and travel over to my dressing table where I sit down and wrap my hair up in a silk scarf. Removing my night robe, I drape it across a chair in the corner of my room before turning off the light and returning to my bed where I bury myself under covers and fall asleep.

Sometime around the beginning of the night, a consistent tapping on my window wakes me up. Through half-opened eyes, I glance over at my clock and see that it is nearing midnight. I attempt to ignore the sound, assuming that the tapping was from a bird or some other small animal that had found its way onto the roof. The sound, however, continues on for a few more minutes which greatly raises my suspicions. I heave myself out of bed and turn on my room light before pulling back my curtains.

I have to slap my hand over my mouth to stop myself from screaming when I see J.D. sitting on my roof in far worse condition than he was last week. Before I take the time to fully look at him, I rush over to open my window and help him get inside of my room.

“I, uh, I remember you saying t-to tell you if it ever happened again, and it did. I-I didn’t mean to wake you.” J.D.  briefly explains, stuttering immensely as I lead him to sit down on my bed.

“No, you’re fine.” I reassure him. Now that he’s inside and safe, I attempt to examine all of his injuries.

It was worse than it had ever been. The cuts lining his face that had almost healed had burst open again and his bottom lip was busted and coated in blood. I trail my eyes down to his chest where his collar bones and upper sternum area were dark purple and yellow from intense bruising.

I reach forward and wrap my hands around the collar of his leather jacket. “Can I?” I ask, to which he responds with a nod, before sliding off his leather jacket and lying it down on the bed beside him. I pick up his right arm and can almost distinctively make out five imprints left from fingers wrapped around his wrist. I follow down to his hand to see that his knuckles were reddened.

“Thank you for telling me. I’ll be right back, please stay here and try to be quiet.” I request of him before, for the second time, getting my first aid kit out from my bathroom to try to fix J.D.. As I return, I feel myself begin to lightly and quietly cry.

I start with the reopened cuts; cleansing them with hydrogen peroxide and placing bandages over them. I then return to the bathroom to wet a washcloth and use it to wipe away the blood on his lip. As I’m putting most of the items back in the tin box, I begin to hear footsteps on the hardwood floors just outside of my room. With no time to have J.D. hide, and without knocking, mother swings open my door.

“Veronica, what’s-” Mother begins before she meets eyes with J.D.. I quickly realize that I’m still only in my slip that I sleep in and J.D. had removed his jacket, so at first glance, this wasn’t exactly a favorable situation which I see very clearly through her facial expressions. But her angry appearance quickly dissolved into that of concern and worry as she notices J.D.’s current physical state and my tears.. “Who did this?” She asks J.D. as she walks over to stand next to him, and it clearly makes J.D. very uncomfortable.

“That’s not the most pressing matter at the moment,” I intrude, attempting to save J.D. from having to answer an undesirable question. “The problem is that he’s hurt, could you please go get me an ice pack from the freezer?” I ask mother and she nods before leaving the room once again.

“It’s alright, I think she wants to help.” I inform J.D., relieving any fears or anxiety that he may have about my mother’s involvement. “I assume that you don’t want to go back?” I ask J.D., provoking a discussion about if he plans on spending the night.

I can see him swallow deeply before raising his eyes to meet mine and shaking his head. “No, I had to run out. He came back home and started it again and before it was over I-” He begins a frantic explanation. I could tell it was worrying him and his breathing was increasing rapidly, so to make him stop I place my hands behind his neck and press my lips against his. I pull away a few seconds later and begin speaking.

“You don’t want to talk about it, so don’t.” I instruct him and he nods, letting his eyes sink down into his lap. I observe him as he rotates his right hand around in half circles, examining it from all angles. I place my hand on the back of his palm to distract him, but when I feel him wince to the touch I pull away. “Sorry.” I apologize as I raise my hands to wipe away any remaining tears on my cheeks.

Soon afterward, mother returns with a small ice pack wrapped in a washcloth, a glass of water, and an aspirin tablet. She hands J.D. the medicine and lets him take it before giving me the ice pack. I gently press it against J.D.’s chest before bringing up the topic of J.D.’s housing plans.

“Mother, J.D. needs somewhere to stay for the night.” I inform her, keeping my head slightly down and voice small because I’m not quite sure how she will react. She just began to tolerate me seeing J.D. a few weeks ago and now here I am, requesting that he spend the night.

“Well then, I guess I better go turn down the covers in the guest bedroom.” Mother states with a small, welcoming smile before leaving once again.

“Is that alright?” I ask J.D. for reassurance and he nods. “Here.” I mutter simply as I hand him the ice pack. I didn’t know where he was hurting most so there wasn’t much I could do. A few minutes go by and the air grows awkwardly silent.

“We don’t have to talk about it, you know, ever if you don’t want to.” I tell J.D.. He already felt slight pressure to tell my mother what happened and I don’t want him to feel that anymore.

“Thank you.” J.D. responds, keeping his eyes down. I can’t tell if he’s avoiding eye contact because of the fear of confrontation and talking about what happened or if it’s somehow because of shame. I decide to return to that question at a later time; enough events had already occurred in one night for the both of us and there was no reason to add to the list.

“J.D., if you would follow me I can show you to the guest bedroom.” Mother informs J.D. as she stands in the doorframe leading into my room. He stands up and follows her down the hall. As soon as he leaves I’m filled with a sense of fear, less fear of what may happen to me and more so fear of what may happen to J.D. now that I’m not with him.

Mother soon returns to my room, closing the door behind her. “It’s far too late, we can talk about it tomorrow morning. You don’t, nor does J.D., have to tell me anything you don’t wish to.” Mother explains, practically crossing out most of the worries I had at the moment involving her. “Goodnight, Veronica.” She smiles before leaving my room and returning downstairs.

After waiting a few minutes to ensure that she had returned to her room and could not hear me, I carefully and quietly stood up, left my room, and entered the guest bedroom where I found J.D. fiddling with the plastic corners of the ice pack. Funnily enough, he doesn’t look surprised by the fact that I had come to see him.

“She won’t ask you about it, nor will I.” I give him the message mother had told me as I sit down on the bed beside him. “I’m glad you’re safe.” I tell him genuinely as I place a comforting hand on his lower arm.

“I guess I am too.” J.D. laughs lightly, which felt good to hear. I lean down and lightly push my lips against his. He raises his hand and places it on my side, pulling me ever so slightly closer to him before we separate. “Goodnight, Ronnie.” He says quietly as I stand back up from the bed, preparing to return to my room for a well needed night of sleep.

“Goodnight, J.D..”


	44. Chapter 43

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> warning: child abuse mention

The next morning, mother comes into my room to wake me up. As soon as I gain full awareness of my surroundings, my immediate worry is J.D.. “Veronica, I assume you do not wish to tell your father about last night’s events.” Mother opens up and I nod. “Well, I know it’s a little bit earlier than usual but why don’t you go ahead and get ready so you and J.D. can come get breakfast and leave before I wake up your father?” Mother suggests, her care and generosity are quite surprising. I expected to have to take care of the matter myself, but she had already done it for me.

“Alright, I’ll get dressed now.” I respond, rubbing my eyes as I sit up on my bed. Mother leaves my room so I stand up from my bed, brush my teeth, get dressed, fix my hair, and put on makeup before lacing on a pair of saddle shoes, grabbing my bookbag, and going downstairs. I find J.D. already standing by the breakfast table. For some reason, seeing him still covered in bruises and bandages was strange. I couldn’t tell if I expected everything to magically be fixed after last night or if I had convinced myself that it was a dream.

“Good morning.” I smile softly at him before we both sit down. He doesn’t respond. Mother brings over plates of eggs, bacon, toast, and a few jars of jelly. She then removes her apron before sitting down next to me. J.D. and I get our food, but I assume that mother is waiting until father arrives and we have left to eat. The meal stayed deadly silent the entire time. There were plenty of things to talk about, but nobody wished to discuss such unpleasurable events so we didn’t.

As soon as J.D. and I finish our breakfast, mother is quick to grab our plates and take them over to the sink. “If you two go ahead and go now, I can get father. Veronica, I will just tell him you had tutoring of some sort.” Mother explains to me. I nod silently before putting my bookbag back on and walking with J.D. out to his motorbike. I look down at my watch and see that we still have a half an hour left before school starts, but staying outside of the house leisuring for a while was far too risky.

Little verbal exchange is made between J.D. and I, even as we enter the school library to waste away the still remaining twenty minutes before class starts. J.D. clearly wasn’t ready to talk about anything yet and I was not going to force him to or pressure him into discussing his father.

***

The other events of the Thursday carry on as usual, but I felt so disconnected from everything. Throughout all of my classes I was taking notes, doing problems, and being semi-active but I wasn’t really engaged in those things. Instead, I was worrying about J.D. and if he was okay right now, if he was going to be okay, and mentally replaying the events of last night. It was torturous. Eventually, the end of the day comes and as J.D. brings me back to my house after school, I attempt to actually talk to him.

“Do you have to go back?” I ask, quite worriedly.

“I’ll be fine. My room has a lock and if anything happens I can always leave or call you, if that offer still stands.” J.D. replies. His statement is only half reassuring, but I again decide to not force him into anything that he does not wish to do.

“Of course it still stands, it always will.” I tell him with a warm smile. I kiss him goodbye before heading back inside of my house. “Hello?” I call out, wandering into the foyer.

“Veronica! Could you come here for a moment?” Mother responds, her voice emitting from the living room. I suddenly fill with anxiety at the thought of how many things she could possibly wish to discuss. After last night, the list is virtually infinite. “Sit down, please.” She requests, gesturing to a spot beside her on the couch.

“Yes?” I ask, desperate to know what she wanted so I could calm down slightly.

“Now I know I said that I wouldn’t make you tell me anything, but I have to ask for the safety of Jason, who did that to him?” She questions me. I could tell by her voice that it was very difficult for her to even ask me that question, let alone hear the answer.

I take a deep breath before responding. “It was his father, it has been going on for a little over a week now. Last night was the worst I had ever seen it.” I inform mother and she nods, keeping her head slightly down.

“I see. Have you talked to Jason about it today?”

“No. In fact, we barely talked at all today, which is quite strange. We only held one conversation and that was just now when he dropped me off. I had asked him to stay but he said he would be fine and he left.” I explain to her.

“Okay. Veronica, the next time that you see him could you please tell him that if something bad ever happens again or he needs a place to stay, that our house is always open?” Mother requests of me and I nod. The immense leniency and acceptance that she was showing towards J.D. were very new to me, and hopefully permanent. If the incident of the previous night had occurred a month ago, she may have let J.D. stay but would have shown immense displeasure, not kindness and a welcoming attitude.

I retreat back up to my room and have to fight the urge to call J.D. out of fear of either his father would answer or nobody would answer, knowing that J.D. would be home by now. I don’t know which one scares me more.


	45. Chapter 45

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I apologize for the super bad cut off, I wrote chapters 45 and 46 together and had to find somewhere to cut it.

“I have a surprise for you.” I inform J.D. as we approach his front door.

“Does this have anything to do with why you made me pick you up a block away from your house?” J.D. asks with a smile as he loses door, locking out the cold, dark, fall evening.

“Maybe,” I respond teasingly. “I told my mother that I was sleeping over at Heather McNamara’s house, so we, quite literally, have all night.” 

“We do?” J.D. smiles suggestively as he turns around to face me again. He places his hands on the sides of my waist to pull me closer to him as he kisses me.

“Not for that.” I laugh as I push him away slightly. “For company. I also just wanted to check up on you.” I remind him. I take the moment we are close to look over his injuries. All of his cuts had healed over slightly so he no longer had any bandages on his face, and some of his bruises has begun to shrink as the edges of them healed themselves, but a majority of them were still there.

I look down and take his hand in mine to examine his knuckles. I barely have time to see that they’re no longer bruises before he pulls away. “Oh, uh, sorry.” I apologize softly, lowering my hand too.

“No, it’s just, it’s the one thing that I can’t shield you from; Me. Try as I might.” He laughs uncomfortably. I try to not pester him about what exactly he meant by that. Tonight wasn’t meant to be for healing, it was for a distraction. 

“Why don’t we go find some movies to watch?” I suggest after reminding myself that I was supposed to be distracting him.

“Sure, I’ll go get us drinks.”

I trail beside him into the kitchen to get Coca Colas before going into the living room where we flip through channels until we find a station that is a little less than an hour into Gone With The Wind. Before J.D. even has the opportunity to ask me if this is alright, I say ‘yes’.

As the movie continues, I watch J.D. become involved in the story but I am still struggling to handle his current physical appearance. “What is it?” J.D. asks, quickly snapping me out of my observational trance.

“I’m sorry, what?” I request for clarification, not quite sure I heard what he said.

“What’s wrong, you were looking at me strangely.” J.D. asks again. I’m not sure if I should tell him the truth or not.

“Oh, sorry, I was just, um…” I stutter before trailing off. He appeared to see right through me, though, when he smiled softly and sighed.

“I’ll be fine, trust me. Almost all of this will be gone in about a week, maybe a tiny scar will remain from one of the cuts, but that’s at absolute maximum.” He explains to me. I’m not sure how much trust I have in his accuracy but I hope that it is true.

Going completely against what I reminded J.D. about when I arrived, I gently wrap my hand around the back of his neck and push my lips against his. I quickly begin to move down the side of his neck, making sure to not put on too much pressure in fear of hurting him, fore something in my mind had convinced me that kissing him would heal him. I pull away a moment later too see that bruises still scattered across his chest and face and become visually upset, as if I truly believed that I could make them disappear. I return to kissing him again and feel him wrap his hands around my lower back. Again, I pull back and frown at the sight of him still injured.

“You can’t make them go away, at least not like that.” J.D. laughs, catching quite easily onto what I was doing.

“Well, I can at least try.” I smile back before looking down to check my watch. It was already 10:00 and his father was still gone. “Is this normal for him?” I ask, not realizing my vagueness until after I had made my statement.

“What?” J.D. counters back, already showing discomfort at the topic of my question.

“It’s past ten o’clock and your father still isn’t home.” I point out.

“Is that a bad thing?” J.D. says humorously, obviously attempting to use a joke to reject some kind of sadness. I, again, decide to not go too deep into the matter and instead decide to allow the night to progress at its own pace.

“I guess not.” I reply with a small smile.

“You don’t want to just sit here watching tv all night, do you?” J.D. asks abruptly.

“Um, I suppose not, why? What else do you want to do?” I question him back. It’s already ten o’clock at night, there aren’t many places we can go in Sherwood at this time.

“Let’s, I don’t know, talk about stuff.” J.D. shrugs and I take the chance to see if he is open to the idea of discussing the events of the past week. It’s a very serious and sensitive topic and I don’t want J.D. to keep it all inside. Maybe not heal just yet, but take the first step by accepting that it happened and opening up about it.


	46. Chapter 46

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter picks up right where the last one ended, so if you are confused then I recommend going to the previous chapter and reading the last paragraph or two

“I think the most important question at this point is if you want to talk about it, and only if you’re ready to.” I state and J.D. immediately looks down.

“I don’t think so.” He replies quickly. I almost instinctively reach my hand out and place it on his shoulder.

“That’s perfectly fine, we won’t until you want to.” I remind him softly.

“Uh, thanks.” J.D. smiles uncomfortably. I go back to my original plan of distracting him, because he looks as if he needs it right now.

“What classes are you taking right now?” I ask him, suddenly realizing that we never really talk about school.

“Let’s see…” J.D. begins, raising his eyes to the ceiling as he racks his brain for the memory. “Calculus, AP Literature, Chemistry, and American History, which I have with one of the Heathers, I believe.” J.D. informs me, reminding me of when I first saw him. Heather McNamara was the one who told me his name in the first place.

“That would be Heather McNamara.” I expand on his previous statement.

“Oh, she’s mentioned me?” J.D. asks, making a slightly shocked face at the thought of a Heather mentioning him.

“Yes, it was back on the day of the first lunchtime poll and of Kurt Kelly’s homecoming party. She was the one who told me your name.”

“Huh, well I guess it’s my turn for a question. Do you plan on going to college?”

“Most likely. Mother has been saying that it would be a waste for me not to since about Junior High School because I’ve always been quite advanced intellectually. What about you?” I respond to him before leading into another question for him.

“Funnily enough, I just applied for Ohio State a little over a week ago.” He informs me. I was going to ask why he didn’t tell me, but then I realized that the answer would most likely involve the incidents involving his father so I refrain.

“That’s wonderful!” I smile, attempting to provide some support for him. Our conversation blends from topic to topic and before I know it I become oddly tired. I check my watch and see that it is already almost 2:00am. “Oh my goodness, it’s so late.” I remark with wide eyes. Before J.D. can respond, we both hear a car rush into the driveway, and I’m sure we both know very well that it is his father. I immediately grab his hand and rush us into his bedroom, almost slamming his door behind us.

I look at J.D. and see him breathing deeply and notice that his face has gone very pale. I turn around and twist the lock on his bedroom door. “There.” I say simply, attempting to calm him. “He’s locked out of here. Even if he somehow got in, I’m here with you.” I remind him, running my hand up and down his arm.

“I guess you don’t know where my priorities lie.” J.D. laughs softly, confusing me.

“W-What do you mean by that?” I ask, letting my arm sink back down to rest beside me.

“I couldn’t care less about me right now, my worry comes from the fact that you’re here and-” J.D. begins to express some ludicrous concern.

“J.D. don’t do that.” I state with a sigh. “You shouldn’t, you can’t, worry more about me than you. Bottom line is he can’t get in here so he can’t hurt either of us.”

“Okay.” J.D. nods, looking down towards the ground. We both remain silent as we listen to his father loudly swing open the front door and fumble around out in the living room and kitchen before another door slams and the house goes back to silent.

“Look, he either left or went to bed.” I point out optimistically with a small smile.

“Apparently. Didn’t you say you were tired?”

“Aren’t you?” I counter back. We’ve been talking for almost three hours and it’s well past midnight, he must be at least slightly.

“A little, I guess. Do you want to go lay down?” J.D. offers but I don’t exactly accept yet.

“In just a moment, I will be right back.” I inform him before unlocking his door and slipping back out. I quickly find the bathroom and enter. I didn’t bring a change of clothes to sleep in, but I can at least take off my petticoat and stockings to be slightly more comfortable. As I’m taking them off, I worry that what I’m doing is improper before remembering that he’s seen me in just a slip before. Even though there was a multitude of other events occurring at the same time that had happened, my bare calves shouldn’t be too problematic.

I pick back up the garments I had removed and go back into J.D.’s room to find him sitting down on his bed, reading a book, but quickly averting his attention to me when I enter. “Better.” I sigh with a small laugh as I set down my things on the floor in a corner. I walk around to the side of the bed that is empty and lay down. Despite J.D. keeping a lamp on and continuing reading, I am able to fall asleep very quickly due to my exhaustion.

Sunlight blindingly seeping through half-closed blinds wakes me up far too early in the morning. Rubbing my tired eyes, I roll over onto my back and take a deep breath. I look over to my side and see the lamp still on J.D. still sitting up with a book in front of him, despite the fact that he was looking down at me.

“Oh my goodness, how long have you been awake?” I ask him as I sit up, noticing that the sun was intense and just now creeping inside.

“Um…” J.D. trails off as I turn my eyes from the window back to him. Observing his facial expression, I realize what he was trying to keep a slight secret.

“You never went to sleep, did you?” I question him, almost in slight awe. I’m not quite sure how to react to the situation just yet because I haven’t discovered why he didn’t sleep.

“No.” J.D. replies, setting his book down beside him and keeping his gaze downwards.

“Why not?”

“I’m not sure.” He shrugs. “I kind of, I don’t know, avoid sleep surrounding the times when bad things happen.”

“Do you get nightmares?” I ask, slightly scared to hear the answer. As if it wasn’t enough for the universe to just torment him throughout the day, it also had to happen when he was sleeping.

“Just sometimes.” J.D. says softly. I’m not quite sure how I should respond, I haven’t had many nightmares since my childhood.

“Please try to sleep from now on.” I request of him. “I think we both know by know that if something bad happens we can always just sneak into the other’s house, so if you end up having a bad one you can always come get me.” I remind him, which is about the best comforting I can do for this situation.

“Thank you.” J.D. smiles, and it seems as if what I said had an actual positive influence on him.

“Of course.”


	47. Chapter 47

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back from my small break!

“Bye, Heather. I’ll see you tomorrow.” I smile to Heather McNamara as she drops me back off at my house. Our Tuesday trip to Rosie’s lasted a little longer than usual so I rush inside and up to my room because J.D. should now be calling me at any minute. 

Sure enough, after just unpacking my book bag and starting up some of the night’s homework, the telephone begins to ring. I am quick to pick up to avoid J.D. having to talk to mother.

“Hello?” I ask after picking up the phone and setting my pencil down on the bed.

“Hi, Veronica. It’s J.D..” J.D. responds cheerily. He typically doesn’t sound this happy or upbeat, so I am pleased to hear him in such a good mood.

“J.D., you sound quite happy today.” I point on, mindlessly twirling the phone cable around my fingers.

“I am, would you like to know why?” He asks, proposing the reveal of a possible secret or news.

“I would love to know why.”

“Well, during fifth period today I made a new friend. I use the term ‘new’ quite loosely because he’s actually me first.” J.D. laughs on the other line. His news excites me. Having a friend and being close to someone other than me is very healthy for J.D. mentally and may limit some abnormal interactions J.D. may have with the vast majority or just other singular people, like when he tried to stop me from seeing the Heathers a while back.

“That’s wonderful! What’s his name?” I continue the conversation.

“You may know him. His name is Doug, I believe his last name may be Hilton.” J.D. informs me and I am almost taken aback.

“Oh my goodness, that’s Heather’s boyfriend. Heather McNamara.” I clarify. “I’ll have to tell her that the two of you are friends. Maybe the four of us can go out sometime.” I suggest.

“Calm down, Veronica, I just met him today.” J.D. laughs softly.

“Well, you’ll have to update me tomorrow afternoon on if you two talk again. Goodbye, J.D..” I reply. I wait for him to say goodbye too before hanging up and continuing n with my homework.

***

Thursday rolls around and J.D. had kept his word. On Wednesday afternoon he called me and told me about how he and Doug had partnered up for a project and were able to talk some more. “Ronnie, could I talk to you about something?” J.D. asks as he parks his bike in front of my house after dropping me off.

“Sure.” I smile kindly, expecting this to be about Doug again.

“Um, actually could we go sit down?” He requests, motioning towards the bench on the front porch and the mood suddenly changes. I nod before we trail up almost to the front door before seating ourselves. “This is about what Kurt did, is that alright?” J.D. asks and I feel my heart begin to quicken.

“Yes,” I reply, attempting to keep my gaze in line with his and almost failing.

“I remember how last time you went to the drive in, even though it was just with the girls, you got scared and had me come talk to you afterward. So to help, um, cope, with what happened, I thought that you and I could possibly go there together so that if you want to talk about anything then I’m right there and it could maybe help alter that tainted view you have of the drive-in.” J.D.explains his idea and it takes me a moment to process it. 

At this point in my life, whenever I imagined strength I imagined J.D.. He was the only form of physical, and really emotional, support I had in my life, other than my mother and Heather McNamara but this isn’t something I would discuss with her. It would also be good to get that correlation of drive in and being attacked out of my head, it would only yield positive outcomes. But the thought of going back there at all is still frightening.

“Would we take your bike?” I ask him, wanting to cover all bases before giving a final answer.

“What do your parents drive?” He asks with a small smile. I think we would both dislike having to sit in the section of metal chairs, car seats were far more comfortable.

“My father drives a truck.” I respond, thinking that a truck would be much better than mothers small car. Plus, we could take blankets and sit in the bed of the truck.

“If you could persuade him to let us borrow it for the night, that would be wonderful.”

“What night would we do this?” I ask, realizing that he never suggested an actual date.

“Friday, so tomorrow.” He informs me. Now that I know all of the details, I want to take the time to fully think about it. Yes, it may help take away my fear of the drive-in, but how important is that? It’s not like I would go there very often other than the break trips with the girls.

“I-I don’t know. What if I panic again?” I stutter. I’m completely on the fence about this, the positives are almost equal to the negatives.

“Like I said, I’ll be right there with you the whole time.” J.D. clarifies for me. “I just don’t like knowing that, like you told me over fall break, you’ll have to go back to the drive-in multiple times with the Heathers and going there scares you. I thought that, since you will have to go back there, I might as well try to help make it less terrible. Also, I know that this was a while ago, but instead of trying to stop you from going places I would try to help you by making those places that you’re going to enjoyable. Well, maybe not enjoyable but just non-awful.” He explains with a small laugh. His explanation proves itself to be quite convincing. Also, I believe that this may be some way for him to make up for when he was overprotective which I will gladly accept.

“Alright, I suppose that going back to the drive-in but with you could be beneficial. I’ll ask my father about borrowing the truck and call you tonight to tell you what he says.” I respond to his initial request.

“Thank you, Veronica.” J.D. smiles as he stands up from the bench.

“I’ll call you later,” I say as a form of a goodbye, rising from the bench too before smiling and returning inside.


	48. Chapter 48

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back bitches

“Fair warning, if you crash this thing my father will actually kill you.” I laugh to J.D. as we throw blankets into the truck bed.

“Thanks, that really helps alleviate some of the stress.” J.D. smiles as we sit down in the front seats.

“What, have you never driven an actual car before?” I ask, putting my seatbelt on.

“No!” J.D. remarks with a smile. “I’ve only ever ridden my motorbike.”

“Well, I don’t even have a license, regardless of the fact that I’m already sixteen, so you may only take this with a grain of salt but I can’t imagine it being much harder.” I attempt to ease his fears before we back out of the driveway and go off to the drive-in. J.D. pays admission for both of us before parking the truck facing away from the screen so that we could sit in the truck bed to watch the movies. After parking, we go to the concessions stand to get popcorn and Coca-Colas.

“Are you okay?” J.D. asks me right as the movie begins. I nod and smile lightly before reverting my attention back to the screen. Everything goes quite smoothly until about fifteen minutes in when I feel it starting to happen again. I hear myself breathing louder and louder and my heart is beating so fast that it’s almost hurting my chest. “Veronica, Veronica?” J.D. says incredibly concernedly, shaking my arm.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I’m fine I just…” I trail off after turning to face him. I look down slightly and attempt to calm my breathing.

“Don’t say that you’re sorry. I’m right here with you, okay?” J.D. replies in an attempt to comfort me.

“I know, thank you.” I smile lightly before placing my hand behind his neck and leaning forward to kiss him. After pulling away, I rest my head down on his shoulder and try to pick back up with the movie, letting it serve as a distraction. As the minutes progress into hours, the majority of my worries and fears dissipated, fore I had begun trying to make the memory of this visit override that of my past visit.

“Are you tired?” J.D. asks as the ending credits of the final movie begin to play.

“I’m tired about ninety-five percent of the time.” I laugh, sitting up straight and rubbing my shoulders that had become sore after leaning against a truck for the past three hours. We climb out of the truck bed and get back into the front seats before returning back to my house.

“I guess I’ll see you on Monday then, unless you want to go do something this weekend.” J.D. suggests as he walks me up to my front door.

“I don’t know, I have a lot of homework and with finals coming up-” I begin to reply before J.D. cuts me off.

“Finals? Veronica, it’s only November.” He laughs.

“Yes, and I’m an overachiever.” I reply with a smile. “I’ll see you on Monday.”

“Bye, Ronnie.” J.D. says, handing me back the keys to my father’s truck. I turn around to walk inside and hang the keys on the hooks by the garage.

“Veronica?” Mother calls out and I trace her voice back to the living room. “You were out quite late.” She remarks, looking slightly confused.

“There were two movies and we stayed for both. Besides, it’s only about ten o’clock.” I respond, sitting down on the couch beside her. “Oh, by the way, I put your keys back on the hooks. Thank you for letting us borrow the truck.” I smile to father who sat in a chair watching the news, only half paying attention to me.

“No problem, Veronica.” He replies, only making eye contact for about a second.

“Veronica, while you were out your father and I were talking. We thought it would be nice to see some more of J.D., we have only seen him the one time when he came over for dinner. So, if it’s alright with you, we would like to invite him over for Thanksgiving.” Mother explains to me. I highly doubt that J.D. has any plans for Thanksgiving, and even if he did he may appreciate the opportunity to a, get away from his father and b, possibly give a good impression to my parents now that they don’t despise him.

“That sounds like a swell idea, I’ll ask him about it at school on Monday.” I smile before standing up and returning to my room. I could call him to ask tomorrow, but I would like to talk about this in person.

***

“Veronica!” I hear a familiar voice call out my name as I just barely cross through the front doors of the school. I turn around to find J.D. leaned against the brick exterior of the building.

“Oh, I was just about to go find you, I need to ask you about something,” I quickly smile as I begin walking back over to him.

“I just wanted to ask how you were. You said you had a lot of school work to do and I didn’t want to bother, that’s why I didn’t call. What did you need to ask?” J.D. questions me, tapping the end of his cigarette off on the brick before dropping it on the ground.

“I’ve been doing quite well, and trust me you never bother me when you call. I wanted to ask if you have any plans for Thanksgiving yet? I know it’s kind of short notice.” I reply.

“No but let me guess, you want me to come over to your house for it.” J.D. smiles, standing up straight.

“Well, more accurately my parents want you over, but I like the idea too. They don’t really know anything about you, you’re still kind of a mystery to them.” I explain to him. “As of right now they approve of you, maybe over the visit you can make them like you.” I lead him on. I really want J.D. to not just be on their neutral side, but actively on their good side because that will greatly decrease the chance of them getting weird and rejecting towards him again.

“Well, if you want me to be there then I will be. What time?” J.D. agrees, but I have no clue when he should come over.

“Um, maybe around three o’clock that way you have time to chat? I don’t know, I’ll call to verify this afternoon.” I respond slightly cluelessly.

“Alright. Come on, I’ll walk you to class.”


	49. Chapter 49

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry i keep taking a million years to post an update lmao

“Veronica, what time did you tell J.D. to come over?” Mother asks, stepping into my bedroom.

“I told him three o’clock,” I respond, sitting up on my bed to check the clock and see that it is already nearing two o’clock.

“Well, I suppose you better start getting ready.” She comments, silently acknowledging the fact that I was still wearing pajamas.

“Yes ma’am,” I reply quietly, standing up from my bed. Since I’m not going out anywhere and the girls aren’t here, I decide to wear a dress that wasn’t blue for once. I wander into my closet and find a dark olive dress with small black flowers all over it. The dress has short sleeves so I pair it with a deep wine colored sweater so that I’m not cold. I haven’t been able to wear non-blue things for months and I feel like this has a nice fall feeling. I get dressed before walking back out into my room and over to my dresser where I find a nice starburst brooch to pin on my sweater.

I sit down at my dressing table and brush through my hair before twisting and pinning it partially up into victory rolls. After doing my makeup, I check my clock and see that it is only half past two. There isn’t much time to start on anything or read much so I decide to go downstairs to see if mother needs any help in the kitchen.

“Oh, Veronica, good. Would you put an apron on and come crumble this cornbread for the dressing?” Mother requests the second she sees me enter the kitchen, clearly wasting no time.

“Of course.” I smile, taking off my sweater and replacing it with an apron. I go over to wear mother is standing and does as she directs. As I assist, I watch her hurriedly go from place to place around the kitchen, working quickly. “Mother, we have almost two more hours before we eat. There’s no need to rush.” I attempt to calm her.

“Oh, you’re right.” She replies with a small laugh, checking the oven clock. “It’s getting quiet and your father is still in the bedroom. Would you be a dear and go turn on the radio.” Mother smiles kindly, taking everything I had prepared away so she could actually make food with it.

 

“Sure,” I reply, taking off my apron and putting my sweater back on before stepping out of the kitchen and into the living room. The soft music makes the house slightly less lonely. Since I am not needed at the moment, I sit down on the couch as to stay out of mother’s way in the kitchen. A few minutes late there is a knock at the door and I rush up to go answer it. Upon opening the door I am met with a slightly uncomfortable J.D. dressed in a suit. “You’re still not used to wearing them?” I ask with a small smile, pointing out his awkwardness.

“I don’t suppose that I’ll ever be.” He laughs, stepping inside.

“Come on, we can just go watch television until it’s dinner time.” I direct him as we walk into the living room. 

“You know, when I was a teenager we didn’t have televisions in our homes. We had to actually talk to people.” Mother jokes, making her presence known in the house as she walks into the living room with us. Both J.D. and I laugh softly as we all sit down in chairs. “Hello Jason, how have you been recently?” She asks, striking up a conversation.

“I’ve been doing quite well.” He responds briefly, causing mother to smile understandingly and nod as she looks over the few injuries that still remained on him.

“So, dinner should be done in about an hour and a half so we’ll be eating a little after four. Mr. Sawyer should be coming out any minute so we can have some nice time to catch up.” Mother informs us and we nod silently. Feeling the air grow tense over the next minute or two, I decide to begin a conversation amongst the three of us.

“Did y’all hear about the murder of the Clutter family last week, down in Holcomb, Kansas last week?” I ask, recalling all of the news coverage that had been going on about it.

“Yes, terrible thing.” Mother replies, keeping her eyes down.

“Wasn’t it a robbery that went wrong?” J.D. asks, getting in his part of the conversation.

“Apparently, they still haven’t found who did it yet?” I inform him. Barely a second later, we all hear the master bedroom door open and out walks father.

“Oh, I haven’t seen you in a while.” Father smiles, acknowledging J.D..

“Hello, sir.” J.D. greets him, standing up to shake his hand before sitting back down. Father immediately walks over to the television and turns it on to flip through channels before finding the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.

“This is the thirty-five year anniversary, right?” I ask openly, not seeing that being advertised but recalling having heard about it.

“Yes, it’s been happening since 1924.” J.D. responds promptly, which is oddly funny to me.

“You know your parades well, huh?” I tease him with a smile.

“No, it’s just that I was living in New York around this time last year. I remember that being the thirty-fourth, my history teacher talked about it a lot the day before Thanksgiving break.” J.D. informs mainly me, fore father and mother weren’t paying very much attention. I’ve always loved whenever he stops thinking so much before speaking and, possibly accidentally, tells me a story from a place he used to live in or a school that he used to attend.

Eventually, mother and father disconnect from the parade and engage in conversation with J.D. and I. Luckily, J.D. eventually became comfortable and I could tell that his discussions with my parents came very naturally which was tremendously beneficial to my reassurance of mother and father’s acceptance of J.D. Not only was he comfortable with talking to them, they were happy when talking to him. Father pretty much smiles and nods along in any conversation, unless it’s about business or family, but mother was talking a lot to J.D. and seemed very pleased to be doing so. It was beyond wonderful to see J.D. smile and to be getting along with my parents.


	50. chapter 50

“So I know we haven’t talked about Thanksgiving since, well, Thanksgiving, but I think I actually like your parents.” J.D. laughs as we walk up to his front door.

“It seemed like it, and it’s amazing that you think that.” I respond with a smile.

“Yeah, you know I think it’s really important for, well, us.” He comments slightly shyly before getting out two bottles of Coca Cola from the refrigerator.

“It is, isn’t it.” I reply with a wide smile. “So, um, have you talked to Doug recently?” I ask, attempting to pick up with another topic.

“Yes I have, and he talks about Heather a lot.” J.D. sighs with a small laugh. “Do you want to go see what’s on tv?” He asks, handing me one of the bottles.

“Sure.” I smile before walking into the living room with him. J.D. goes over to the television and flips through channels before finding a station playing Leave It To Beaver which we agree on. We carry on only about half watching the show for the next hour or so, the other half we spent talking about pretty much everything; School, friends, family, and anything else that we thought the other would be interested in. It felt nice to hear J.D. talk about Doug, because before J.D. met him I never once heard him talking about friends and it’s really good for J.D. mentally to have somebody else that he’s close to other than me.

Although, our conversation is cut short when we both hear the front door swing open before being slammed shut. I look at J.D. and he sits silently with his eyes closed for a minute before looking back up at me. “Come on.” He says quietly, resting his hand out for me to accept before standing up and leading me towards his kitchen and presumably towards another door, but to do so we had to walk past the foyer.

“Well, the bitch is back.” I hear his father slur as we attempt to sneak past him, giving me the instinct to run. I feel J.D.’s grip tighten around my hand before turning around and leading me back into the foyer.

“Don’t call her that.” He states firmly, letting go of my hand. I take this as a chance to take a step or two back away from his father.

“Oh, are you going to do something about it?” His father asks again, taking a step closer to him as he seemingly becomes suddenly enraged, which only makes me more fearful for both J.D. and I. “Huh?” His father taunts, placing his hands on J.D.’s chest and pushing him backwards. Almost reflexively, J.D. turns around, grabs onto my wrist, and rushes towards the front door. We slip outside and he briskly shuts the door behind us.

“Veronica, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know he would be coming home or that he would ever talk to you like that.” J.D. apologizes quickly as he sighs, running his hands through his hair.

“No, no, please don’t apologize. It’s not your fault that he’s like that. Let- let’s just go back to my house.” I suggest, guessing that the best place to be right now is away from his father. J.D. nods before we walk back over to his motorbike and ride back to my house. “Do you want to come inside?” I offer as we pull into my driveway, assuming that his answer would be yes.

“No, I can go back home. I’ll call you later, though.” J.D. replies, shocking and confusing me.

“You really want to go back there?” I ask, attempting to tap into his thought process.

“I don’t want to, but I don’t have much of a choice. I’ll call you later.” He sighs, sounding sad and fearful before turning away from me and driving back to his own personal hell.\

***

He never did. J.D. went back home to his father and never called me. He didn’t even call on Sunday either. Now it’s Monday and I’m waiting for him after school by his motorbike, nervously tapping my foot over and over again. I keep on scanning the small crowds that keep flowing out the front doors to see if I can spot him. “Hey, Ronnie.” A voice calls from behind, startling me as I whip around to see who it is.

“J.D.! You scared me.” I sigh, realizing who it was. “Why did you never call me, I thought something may have happened?” I ask, looking him up and down and seeing that he was perfectly fine and had no new injuries.

“Sorry about that, I just got caught up with school stuff. Don’t worry, I’m fine.” He smiles loosely before we get onto his motorcycle and drive to my house. Once we pull into my driveway, we both get back of of the bike and we walks me up to my front door.

“I’ll call you later tonight, okay?” I smile and he nods. I place my hand on his shoulder and pull him closer to me to kiss him goodbye. When I pull away, I slide my hand down his shirt, accidentally pulling down the neckline to reveal a large purple bruise on his collarbone. “Oh my god.” I practically whisper, staring at it almost in awe.

“Veronica, please don’t worry.” J.D. says, removing my hand from his shirt as a terrifying thought slips into my mind.

“Di-did this happen on Saturday when you went back?” I ask, feeling myself nearing tears. J.D. doesn’t respond verbally, instead he lowers his head, almost like he felt guilty or ashamed. I raise my hand over my mouth and feel a tear roll down my right cheek. I let J.D. go back home, I didn’t even try to convince him to stay, and right when he did he got hurt again. “Why didn’t you call?”

 

“I didn’t want to worry you again.” He responds, still keeping his gaze downwards and he fidgets his hands. I wrap my arms around his chest and hug him gently, trying to avoid pressing on any bruises that may remain. When we pull apart, he meets his eyes with mine and sees that I’ve been crying. “Please don’t cry, just think of how it was two weeks ago. It’s getting better, I promise.” J.D. attempts to reassure me with the most pitying smile I’ve ever seen. He was being physically abused and he was worried about me because I was crying.

“Do you still have to go back home now?” I ask, referring to what he told me last Saturday when he was leaving as I wipe away my remaining tears. He’s been focusing on my well being while I haven’t been near attentive enough with his and I need to fix that.

“I can stay.”


	51. chapter 51

“So, any plans coming up soon?” J.D. asks from across our booth in Rosie’s.

“Partially sadly, yes. Heather Chandler had the idea of going ice skating this Saturday because it’s December and I haven’t been ice skating since I was about seven so I’m thoroughly prepared to make a fool out of myself.” I laugh at my own overly dramatic problems. “What about you?” I counter back and J.D. shrugs lightly.

“I never have much of anything going on, I pass majority of my time by reading.” 

“Well if you don’t have much to tell me in that arena, is it okay if I ask about, you know, what’s been going on recently?” I ask, very vaguely hinting around the subject of his father.

“I already figured that you were going to ask.” He sighs with a small smile. “I also already know what you’re going to ask; so yes, I’m fine. What’s been going on recently is a sort of, if you will, cycle. It typically happens about once, sometimes twice, with every building project, so about every time we move. Something happens at work or there is some kind of complication and it makes him upset, aggravated. Because of that, he drinks, and then because of that, he comes back home at random times both drunk and mad and typically takes it out on me.” J.D. explains. Hearing that this happens consistently is almost too much for me to hear.

“Why did you say you had to go back when you dropped me off last weekend?” I ask, still perplexed as to why he would describe the situation in such a way. He takes a deep breath and keeps his gaze positioned downwards before beginning another response.

“When I’m not there he takes out his anger on other things, he breaks stuff. When I come back, it’s then my fault that he broke stuff because I wasn’t there so he gets mad at me for that, and, well, you know. That has only happened once, though, and it was about two years ago. it’s a lose-lose regardless, might as well take the path of least resistance.” J.D. explains to me further. It was absurd and awful that he had these episodes mapped out almost to a science. It’s happened so often that he knows when it will happen, how often it happens, and the specific consequences his otherwise usual actions will have during the time that it’s going on. “But,” J.D. begins, interrupting my thoughts. “Because this has happened before, I do know when it will stop; and it’s going to soon. He’s been calming down and now most of the time he comes home sober. Last Saturday when you were there was completely random, and I’m so sorry that things happened the way that they happened.”

“No, don’t apologize. Like I said, his actions are in no way your fault, so you have no reason to be apologizing.” I reassure him in a probably less than adequate attempt to make him feel slightly better about the incident last weekend and the overall situation involving his father that is, luckily, now calming down. “I just wanted to ask, obviously to make sure that you were okay, but also because we haven’t really been talking as much as we typically do recently. You know, you’ve been pretty quiet, especially that day after it got really bad one night.” I explain to him, hoping that he will provide some reasoning for this.

“Yeah, I don’t know, I guess I get sort of embarrassed about it.” J.D. shrugs, keeping his voice and head down.

“No, no, please don’t be; remember what I said, you can always talk to me about anything. Please never feel bad or embarrassed about stuff going on in your life, ever.” I attempt to reassure him once more, placing my hand on his.

“Anyway, that’s enough of my sob story.” J.D. laughs, slightly uncomfortable, but clearly attempting to shift the focus onto something less saddening. “How is school going for you?” He asks. We rarely ever talk about school, so it’s nice to at least for once.

“Well the end of the semester is nearing, so I’ve started going over some earlier material from when this year started and that’s been slightly stressful, but overall it’s going quite smoothly as it typically does.” I inform him. I had always been naturally advanced academically, and advanced courses were part of my regular schedule, but this year had been rather burdensome. It’s nothing too crazy, though.

“Wait, Veronica, we genuinely have three weeks before finals and you’re already reviewing?” J.D. asks as he laughs.

“Yes, I enjoy being prepared.” I reply jokingly sassily. “What about you, how is your academic life?”

“I’ve been looking into colleges recently and reading lots of ACT and SAT prep books, so that’s the source of my small amount of stress, but sadly I’m not some prodigious genius like you so I’m not piled up in school work.” J.D. says, rolling his eyes overdramatically as he mocks me.

“I’m not that smart.” I smile, attempting to sound slightly humbled.

“Well, if you’re not so smart then what’s your GPA?”

“That’s not important.” I respond, holding back a small laugh and blushing as I remember that I currently possess a 4.0 GPA. “Anyway, that’s enough about school.”

“Glad you said that, because I want to ask you about something else.” J.D. picks up on a new topic but his vagueness makes me anxious.

“What is it?” I ask with a smile, trying to not get too nervous or wound up.

“It’s been about two weeks since we went to the drive-in, and I wanted to give you some time before asking if you thought it helped or if it did, well, anything really.” J.D. says, still very uncomfortable when discussing what happened there with me almost three months ago now. I take a deep breath before filling him in on how it affected me.

“I do believe that it helped. At the beginning I was scared, obviously, but around the time when we left it was almost normal again.” I explain, cautious about opening up but he nodded along kindly.

“That’s wonderful,” he smiles in response. “And I was thinking that, if it’s still okay, we could go there again some time next week. Maybe to help a little bit more with, you know, what happened, and also just to act like we’re normal teenagers.” J.D. suggests, laughing as he jokes about our personal abnormalities.

“That sounds like a great idea. Thank you for caring about me and trying to make things, I guess, normal again.” I reply, appreciating what he’s been trying to do for me as of recent.

“It’s the least I can do, you deserve all of it.”


	52. chapter 52

“Okay, on a scale of one to ten, how excited are you?” Heather McNamara asks happily as we walk back from my front door to her car.

“Calm down Mac, it’s just ice skating.” I laugh at her high amounts of energy as I sit down in the back seat of her car alongside Heather Duke.

“But it’s so festive! It makes it feel like it’s Christmas already!” She rambles on from the driver’s seat.

“Mhmm. Hello, Heather.” I greet Heather Duke as we pull out of my driveway to finally go pick up Heather Chandler. Once we have everyone in the car, we drive off to some indoor ice skating rink, which was surprisingly a decent half hour away. I haven’t been since I was a little kid, but to no surprise Heather McNamara knew exactly where we were going.

When we arrive, we all pile out of the car and pay for entrance and our shoe rental. As I sit next to Heather McNamara and lace up my skates, I am reminded about the fact that she may not know that Doug and J.D. are friends. I feel as if the news may make her happy, so I decide to tell her.

“Heather, you and Doug are still going steady, right?” I preface the question, just making sure they were still together to avoid a possibly awkward conversation.

“Yes, why?” She asks as she sits back up, having finished putting on her shoes. When she hears me mention Doug she begins to smile, which is something I was also highly guilty of doing with J.D.

“Well, J.D. has recently told me that he and Doug have some class together and they’ve become decent friends.” I inform her with a smile.

“Aw, Ronnie that’s wonderful! We’ll have to go out sometime, all four of us together.” She suggests. I want to be able to meet Doug properly, and I assume Heather may want to meet J.D. properly and the idea of a double date sounds wonderful.

“Oh yes, we must.” I smile widely. “You know, J.D. mentioned that Doug sure does talk about you a lot.” I comment, which seems to make her even more giddy if that’s humanly possible.

“He’s so sweet.” Heather sighs, looking at me with diamonds in her eyes.

“Can you two finish up your little gush sesion so we can go?” Heather Chandler interrupts, overdramatically pretending as if she had been waiting for hours. I roll my eyes before standing up and, with slight difficulty, walk alongside the other girls onto the actual ice rink.

We skate around for about an hour or so, and luckily none of us fall or make a fool out of ourselves in some way. In fact, the only ordeal that occured was that we lost Heather Duke for about ten minutes, but Heather Chandler eventually found her out by the concession stand flirting with some Remington boys.

On the drive back home, I could already feel my feet becoming sore. My ankles and achilles had blisters on them, even despite wearing thick bobby socks. “So, I know our conversation was cut a little bit short earlier, is there anything else you want to talk about?” Heather McNamara asks as she parks in my driveway, clearly referencing what Heather Chandler said to us at the ice skating rink.

“Not really. I’ve told you all about J.D. before, but I’ve never heard much about Doug. Tell me, what’s he like?” I ask her and she starts smiling ear to ear as she curls her legs up into the seat with her.

“He just does all of these really cute little things for me. Like, you know how Heather always has me wear yellow? Well, for our one month anniversary he got me this gorgeous necklace with these gold pearls on it, look.” Heather gushes like a little school girl, taking off the necklace she was wearing and handing it to me. It was gorgeous. It was a plain gold chain and clustered in the middle were three gold pearls, each separated by little gems.

“Oh my goodness, this is gorgeous.” I comment as I admire the necklace before handing it back.

“Oh, and when we first started going steady this is the ring he got me.” Heather continues, holding her left hand out in front of me. On her ring finger there was a gorgeous golden ring where the band was two rings weaving in and out of each other and right in the center there was a large square cut yellow gem.

“He sure does shower you in gifts.” I smile as I look back up at Heather.

“Well I happened to notice a ring on your finger too, let me see!” She exclaims, reaching out towards my hand which I raise for her to see. She holds onto my hand lightly and she began beaming so much that I could practically see the reflecting of the ring in her eye. “I don’t see why the other girls don’t like him, I think he’s swell.”

“Thank you, Heather.” I smile appreciatively as I rest my arm back down by my side.

“I suppose I should let you get going now.” She suggests, putting her feet back down on the floor board.

“Sure, I’ll see you on Monday.” I reply before getting out of the car and returning to my house. I find mother and tell her that I’m home before going up to my room. Talking to Heather had put my attention almost fully on J.D. so I decide to call him. Sitting down on my bed, I dial his number and raise the phone to my ear.

“Hello?” I hear J.D.’s familiar voice answer on the other line.

“Hi, it’s Veronica.” I respond, smiling at the sound of his voice.

“Oh, I was just about to call you. How was skating?” He asks, immediately jumping into a conversation. As always, it was nice to hear him asking about how things in my life were going, it reminded me that there was someone who really cared about me.

“It had its ups and downs. It was fun and I got to talk to Heather McNamara a lot, but now my feet are in a lot of pain.” I laugh at my own slight misfortunes. “But speaking of Heather, I told her that you and Doug are friends now and she thought it would be fun to go on a double date some time.”

 

“That sounds like a good idea. Also, are you still okay with going back to the drive-in?” J.D. asks, a slight hint of caution still lingering in his voice. I respond yes, possibly a little bit too overconfident. “Great, I was thinking we could go on Wednesday if that works for you.”

“Wednesday would be perfect, and I’ll try to get my dad to let us borrow the truck again.” I inform him with a smile.

“That’s wonderful. I’ll talk to you tomorrow. Goodbye, Ronnie.”

“Goodbye, J.D..”


	53. chapter 53

“Hey, um, I just wanted to ask to be safe, and you don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to, but was everything okay that time?” J.D. asks me as we get back in the truck seats after the last movie the drive-in was playing that night ended. I take a deep breath before responding and try to recall if my emotions had any drastic changes.

“I believe so. It felt… normal, I guess.” I explain to him, almost surprised by the fact that during the entire trip I wasn’t reminded of the incident.

“Really? That’s great, Ronnie.” J.D. replies, an oddly strong tone of sincerity in his voice and a kind smile playing on his lips, which causes me to grin too. We drive back to my house, carefully navigating through the dark night.

“I guess I’ll see you tomorrow then.” I say as we get out of my father’s car and walk up to my front door.

“Goodnight, Veronica.” J.D. replies, placing his hands on the small of my back and pulling me closer to him to press his lips against mine. I respond back by raising my hands and resting them on his shoulders for a moment before pulling away.

“Goodnight, J.D..” I smile back before turning around and walking inside. I trail into the living room, J.D. still on my mind, and find mother and father watching television.

“Oh hello, Veronica, how was you night?” Mother asks, also drawing father’s attention to my presence.

“It was swell. And father, your truck is back in the driveway.” I respond to mother and inform father before we say our final goodbyes for the night and I head upstairs. The day had left me exhausted; I had two tests and went out that afternoon with J.D. so I wasted no time in taking off my makeup, changing into pajamas, and going to bed.

***

Friday passed by all too slowly and throughout all eight hours I was trapped in school I only craved the end of the day more and more. The final bell rings and I rush out to meet J.D. at his motorbike. “Hey, Ronnie.” I hear a voice greet me from behind. I turn around to find, unsurprisingly, J.D.. I smile and quickly say hello before stepping closer to hug him. “You wouldn’t happen to have any plans for this afternoon, would you?” He asks.

“I suppose not, why?”

“Well why don’t we go back to my place, you can call your mom from there and tell her where you are.” J.D. suggests and I suddenly smile as I’m reminded of when we first began dating and I would go over to his house but lie to my mother and tell her I was with a Heather. “What?” He asks, acknowledging my smile.

“Oh, nothing.” I brush it off with a small laugh. “But yes, we can go back to your house.” I answer his original question before we get on his motorcycle and go back to his house. It’s a Friday, so I don’t suppose his father will be home this early. My guess came true when we pulled into the driveway and the van was missing.

We go inside and he immediately shows me where one of the telephones are so I can call my mother. “Hello?” I hear mother ask on the other line, answering very quickly after I had begun calling.

“Hi, Mother, It’s Veronica. I was just calling to let you know that I’m at J.D.’s house right now, if that’s alright.” I inform her, silently praying that she doesn’t ask me to come home.

“Yes, that’s fine. Could you tell me his phone number so I can call you if anything happens or if I need you home?” Mother requests and I quickly realize that I don’t know J.D.’s number by memory so I call him over to tell it to her. “Goodbye, Ronnie. I guess I’ll see you later this afternoon.” Mother says to me after J.D. gives me the phone back.

“Goodbye.” I respond before hanging up the phone and going to sit down next to J.D. on the couch. While I was speaking to mother, he had gotten us Coca Colas. “Thank you.” I say quietly, picking up my drink.

“Of course. Also while you were on the phone, I found a channel that’s playing some christmas movies, does that sound alright?” J.D. asks as he turns to face me. I nod happily before we divert our attention back to the television.

We continue watching television and interrupting it with conversation every so often for almost two hours, during which I feel myself fall into a very specific mood, one which I don’t experience very often. It made my heartbeat quicken and my lower stomach feel airy. Not really knowing why, I turn to my side to face J.D., which quickly grabs his attention.

“What is it?” He asks with a soft laugh, possibly slightly confused as to why I’m looking at him, a question that I didn’t really have the answer to either. J.D. was normally the one to initiate these sort of things, so I wasn’t quite sure what I was doing. Throwing out any caution or fear, I place my hands on his shoulders to quickly pull him closer to me and kiss him. A moment later he puts his hand on my waist and pushes me away slightly. 

Expecting rejection, I go to turn my head away from his but he almost immediately turns me back to face him and presses his lips against mine. I respond quickly, obviously since I was the one to start this, and run my fingers through the back of his hair. After moving both of his hands to my waist and tightening his grip, J.D. pulls me onto his lap. I raise my hands to take off the sweater I wore over my dress and toss it down on the couch beside us. I move my hands down onto his shoulders and pull him slightly away from the couch. Wrapping my hands around the collar of his leather jacket, I slide it down his arms and throw it over by my sweater.

I feel J.D.’s hands move towards the small of my back to pull me closer towards him. I place my hands back on his chest and begin to trail kisses down the side of his neck. Suddenly, and quite humorously, the sound of a telephone ringing fills the house. We both laugh softly before I move once more to sit down on the couch so that J.D. could go answer the phone. Attempting to avoid accidentally eavesdropping, I pick my sweater back up from the couch and slide it back on.

“Who was it?” I ask with a smile as J.D. walks back over towards me.

“Your mother.” He laughs, causing me to laugh too. “Come on, I have to take you home now.” He explains, nodding his head towards the front door. I stand up and follow beside him to his motorbike before he drives me back home.


	54. chapter 54

“I can’t believe this is our second to last trip to Rosie’s for the semester, and the next one is actually on the last day of the semester.” Heather Duke sighs to the group in our booth at Rosie’s.

 

“You guys have been doing this for years, this is even more crazy for me.” I laugh, thinking about how fast the semester has gone by. I wish I could just take all of that extra time I have had the previous few weeks and have them right now. I needed time badly; even going on this trip to Rosie’s was risky. Finals and Midterms start in less than a week and I need to be cramming, I really need to do well on finals this year so I can look good on all of the college applications I’ll be filling out next year. “And then to make it even more crazy, it’s the end of the semester which means finals and midterms.” I sigh, causing Heather Duke to nod in agreeance.

 

“I don’t get why you two are so stressed out, as long as we pass enough classes to graduate we’ll be fine.” Heather Chandler shrugs before taking a sip of her milkshake.

 

“Not if you want to get into college.” I remark with a small laugh. Midway through my statement, it occured to me that Heather Chandler most likely isn’t going to college. “Oh, do you not want to?” I ask slightly cautiously.

 

“You do? I always just assumed that I wouldn’t. Besides, now I’ve met Tommy and he’s already in university so whenever I graduate he’ll be able to get a job that will keep both of us quite comfortable.” Heather Chandler explains her thought process. It was one that majority of the girls in school had, Heather Duke and I were incredibly clearly the exception in this case.

 

“Remember, Heather, you’re only a sophomore and some things may change. You may want to try a little harder because you may end up having to support yourself for a little while.” I advise Heather, trying my absolute hardest to not sound rude because that wasn’t my intention at all. Almost anyone could get a job to support themselves on just a high school degree, but Heather’s lifestyle may require a little bit more income.

“Tommy and I have been quite serious for a few months now. Besides, if it’s only me I can get a good enough job on a high school degree to keep my going.” Heather explains, disproving my previous assumption. I didn’t know that her and Tommy were so serious that she was considering marriage around the time that she graduates. Of course I knew that they were going steady, just not that much. “What about you, Heather? Are you going to try to get into college?” Heather Chandler asks Heather McNamara, the only one who hasn’t given input in the situation yet.

Heather shrugs before beginning to speak. “I don’t know, but I don’t think I will. I hope that I will find a permanent partner within the next year or so, since I’ll be graduating next year, but if I don’t just yet I can get a simple job to support myself or have my father help me out.”

“Mac’s got herself a pretty foolproof plan, considering that her father probably has enough money to keep all five of us supported for the rest of our lives.” Heather Duke teases, causing our small booth in Rosie’s to fill with laughter.

***

Midterms and Finals start tomorrow and I am absolutely panicking. It’s already Sunday afternoon and I’ve been studying almost everyday over the previous week but I’m still scared that it’s not enough. Heather Duke is the only other one in our group planning on going to college, but her studies are more so literacy while mine are mainly mathematics. Besides, I’ve never really been quite close to her so inviting her over to study may be quite awkward for the both of us, not to mention the drive-in incident. I would quite like a friend to study with, though. I would still be reviewing so I wouldn’t feel guilty and I would have someone here with me since I haven’t been very social recently.

After a decently lengthy mental debate about how beneficial it would be versus how distracting it would be, I decide to invite J.D. over. He’s a year above me, so although he may have not taken these same classes at Westerburg, he would have taken something very similar somewhere else. I pack all of my papers I had strewn out over my bed back into their respective folders or binders and put them off to the side before reaching over to my phone to call J.D..  
“Hello?” I hear a familiar voice ask on the other side of the line.

“Hi J.D., it’s Veronica. Um, I was wondering if you weren’t too busy right now, maybe you could come over and help me study for a little bit.” I request.

“No, I’m not busy at all. I can be over there in about ten minutes.” He responds.

“Perfect, I’ll see you then.” I smile before hanging up the phone. I stand up from my bed and go downstairs to look for mother. I find her in the kitchen, just beginning to prepare for dinner.

“Hello, Veronica. How have you been, how’s studying?” She asks with a warm smile.

“It’s been going quite well. Speaking of which, I just invited J.D. over to help me study, is that alright?” I ask her.

“Of course. Just, uh, keep your bedroom door open.” Mother replies, making me laugh under my breath. I thank her before returning to my room to wait for J.D. to arrive.


	55. chapter 55

A few minutes later the doorbell rings and I rush downstairs to answer it. Upon opening the door, I am met by J.D. standing below a dark gray sky. “Did it rain on you on the drive over?” I ask, hoping he will say no because I would feel quite guilty if it had.

“Luckily no, but it looks as if it’s about to start.” J.D. replies with a small laugh. There was something about his tone that filled me with happiness; it was one of those moments where his outsider facade was set aside and he was just a happy, lightly shy teenager.

“Come inside before it starts.” I reply, snapping out of my thoughts. I open the door all of the way and step to the side and he can come inside. I lead him back up to me room and grab all of my books and notes from my bed before sitting down on the floor next to J.D..

“What is it that you need help with?” J.D. asks, staring at the tall stack of books, folders, and binders that stood beside me.

“Pretty much everything.” I sigh, picking up a large packet of notes from my english class.

“Come on, Veronica. You’re the smartest person I know, there’s no way you need me to help you study everything. Hell, you’ve probably already memorized half of those books.” J.D. reasons with me, making me smile lightly. “Here, hand me what you just picked up and I’ll flip through it and make up some questions.” He suggests with a shrug. I hand him the notes and watch him as he looks through them. Something about his demeanor made me smile; as he read, I witnessed him slipping into a state of disacknowledgement of his surroundings. Something about it made him seem pure, almost ignorantly innocent.

“Shakespeare, huh?” J.D. smiles, looking up from the notes to make eye contact with me, snapping me out of my train of thought in the process.

“Oh, yes, our last unit was about him.” I explain.

“Okay, here we go. Why were Romeo and Juliet forbidden to be with one another?”

“Their families had a long lasting feud.”

“Who did Juliet’s parents attempt to get her to marry?”

“Paris.”

“How did Romeo kill himself?”

“Poison.”

“And Juliet?”

“She stabs herself.” I reply almost immediately to all of his questions.

“God, Ronnie. Are you sure you need me here?” J.D. laughs, looking up from my notes.

“Yes, of course. And even if I didn’t need you for studying, I just like being around you.” I reply with a light smile which he reciprocates before looking back down at the papers.

“The rest of this is pretty much facts about Shakespeare’s life, do you want to go over it?” J.D. asks, quickly flipping through the last few pages.

“No, I know most of that stuff since it was pretty recent.” I explain to him. I set the pile of school papers in front of me to look through and try to find something that I need practice on. “Here, see if you can make up some stuff to quiz me with on this.” I instruct, handing him my World History binder and flipping towards the back of it. History was typically my worst subject, possibly tied with science, but english and mathematics always came to me rather easily so I decide to focus mainly on World History and Biology today.

J.D. takes the binder and flips through it for a few minutes before beginning to fake quiz me. “What does Mesopotamia translate to?”

“Land between two rivers, roughly.”

“Good. What was religion like in Egypt, what was one of their gods?” He questions me. I pause before responding, not quite knowing the answer immediately, which causes him to look up at me, making me nervous.

“Didn’t they just have animism? With the spirits in animals and nature?” I ask, assuming that they still had similar religions to nomads. He looks back down an the paper and I watch his eyes flick up and down.

“Not quite. Their gods did have correlations to nature and agriculture, though. One of their more important gods was Ra, whom they related to the sun.” J.D. explains to me. “Woah, Veronica Sawyer getting a question wrong!” J.D. teases me, making me feel rather self conscious.

“Hush.” I reply, looking down at my hands in my lap.

“Hey, I was just messing around. I didn’t mean to be rude or anything.” He apologizes almost immediately after hearing my reply, and he sounds quite sincere when doing so. “If you get this one right, then we’ll just say that it cancels out the last one.” J.D. sets up a game, attempting to make me feel better. It was so absurdly childlike, ithe gesture made me smile already.

“What was the first dynasty in China?”

“The Xia Dynasty, right?” I answer in the form of a question.

“She’s back at it again, folks.” J.D. jokes, making me laugh. Inviting him over to help me study definitely made the process much, much more enjoyable.

“Hey, don’t you have anything you need to study?” I ask J.D., interrupting him before he can ask the next question.

“No, I do most of that stuff on my own.” He shrugs it off. We continue quizzing me for almost an hour, bouncing back and forth between History and Biology. Although we spent about a quarter of our time talking and not studying, I feel like being able to review the material verbally helped engrave it into my brain more.

“It’s about 6:00, we should be having dinner sometime soon. Do you want to wrap up and head out?” I ask J.D., noticing the rather late time on my watch. He nods so I begin packing up my school stuff before walking J.D. back downstairs.

“J.D., why don’t you stay for dinner?” Mother asks, stopping us halfway from the front door. J.D. pauses for a second before turning to me, possibly for some sort of suggestion. I nod happily, J.D. seemed to enjoy Thanksgiving quite a lot because it got him closer to my parents so having him over again for dinner seemed like a nice idea.

“That sounds wonderful. Uh, thank you for the offer.” J.D. responds with a smile.

“Great, I’ll go set the table for four.” Mother smiles before turning back around and going back into the kitchen.

“I’m wearing my normal clothes, is that alright?” J.D. asks me in a slightly hushed voice, clearly overworring.

“You’re fine.” I laugh at his overreaction.

“I know your mom has obviously seen me normally before, but what about your dad? Will he be weird about it?” He continues.

“My father never had an opinion about you, at least not like mother did, and she likes you now. Just calm down, it will be just like every other dinner we’ve had.” I try to calm his worries.

“Alright.” J.D. sighs, still not sounding completely convinced, which was oddly humorous to me. Mother sets the table and fetches father. We sit down to eat and within five minutes J.D. had completely forgotten about everything and was seemingly having a nice time building a better relationship with my parents, something which was massively important and solidifying for J.D. and I in the long term.


	56. chapter 56

I wake up Monday morning and am immediately filled with a sense of worry at the thought of finals and midterms today. Today I had midterms in mathematics and english, since they were year long courses, and a final in World History, because it was only a semester. Not feeling like dressing up today at all, I put on a pair of denim capris and a thick blue sweater to keep my warm. I pull my hair back into a ponytail before lacing on a pair of saddle shoes and grabbing my bookbag to rush downstairs and eat breakfast before leaving to catch the bus.

Not wasting any time talking to the Heathers or J.D., I go straight to my first period upon arriving to school so I can sit down and attempt to study just before the class began.

The school system was kind enough to make today and tomorrow half-days, since taking three finals each day would only take about four hours anyways. So after four straight hours of testing I escape from the school and go to meet J.D. at his motorbike. After a few minutes pass by, I spot J.D. headed towards me, hiding towards the back of a small crowd of students.

“Hello, how was your day?” I ask J.D. once he gets caught up to me.

“Very tiresome.” He laughs, spinning his keys around on his forefinger. “Oh, I think it may be the season finale for The Twilight Zone tomorrow, so are you still coming over after you and the girls go to Rosie’s?” 

“Yes, of course. I can’t believe it’s the end of the semester already.” I sigh, a laugh finding its way into my words. “I guess this means that we’ve been together for about three months now.” I think out loud.

“I guess so, huh?” J.D. smiles, leaning forward and kissing me quickly. “Come on, I’ll get you home.” J.D. says before we get on his motorcycle and drive back to my house. “I’ll pick you up tomorrow around five.” He reminds me as he drops me off in my driveway. I nod and say goodbye before watching him speed out of the neighborhood.

***

The Tuesday school day was all too similar to Monday. Although, I feel my sluggishness begin to turn into excitement as I sit in my last period class, gently tapping my foot on the floor as I watch the clock tick down the last five minutes of the day. Finally, a bell echoes throughout the classroom and I snatch my books up from my desk before practically running out of the building and over to Heather McNamara’s car. On my way out, I pass by J.D. and we simply smile at each other before continuing on our way.

“We’re free!” I hear a voice call out from behind me. I turn around and see Heather McNamara walking over towards me, a golden smile playing on her lips.

“I know, but for barely two weeks this year.” I laugh, rolling my eyes.

“God, it’s just so unfair. We got off for almost a whole month last year.” Heather complains, unlocking the trunk and putting her book bag in it.

“Yes, but this year we get a spring break. Although, Washington has always had a spring break and their winter break is still almost a month.” I point out. “But I’m pretty sure that their summer is shorter.”

“Oh, what are we talking about?” Heather Chandler asks as she walks up with Heather Duke.

“Nothing, just winter break.” Heather McNamara shrugs, opening her car door and sitting down. The other two girls and I sit in our regular seats before driving off to Rosie’s.

“Why don’t we get hot chocolate this time, we can be festive.” Heather Chandler suggests, turning around to face the back seat as she speaks so Heather Duke and I.

“That sounds fun.” I smile. The thought of hot chocolate on this cold day made me happy, enjoying it with my friends made me even happier. We arrive at Rosie’s, about three hours earlier than usual because it was a half-day, and go sit down at our regular booth. We order our hot chocolates and begin to chat about school, christmas, boys, and pretty much everything else in between. Whichever one of them originally came up with the idea of these weekly trips to Rosie’s was ingenious; it let’s us catch up with one another on a very constant basis and gives us a chance to complain about things or gush about things.

On typical milkshake days, I only have about an hour in between Heather dropping me off and J.D. picking me up, but today I have almost four hours. Also on typical milkshake days I have homework but today I have none so I’ll have to make up something to keep me occupied during my free time. I decide to start up on a new crochet project, a hobby which I have been rather negligent of since I began studying for finals and midterms. Since it was becoming much colder, I decide to start a simple granny square blanket; nothing too fancy, nothing too big, but enough to keep me busy.

I make excellent progress until about two hours later when the phone begins to ring. I reach over to my bedside table and grab the phone to answer it, and I become very surprised when I hear J.D.’s voice on the other line.

“Hi J.D., is everything alright?” I ask, still confused as to why he may be calling when he’ll be picking me up in about two hours.

“Yes, of course. I was just thinking about you and wanted to ask if I could come pick you up a little bit earlier, maybe in about twenty minutes?” J.D. requests, his comment about me making me blush.

“That sounds wonderful, I’ll go tell mother right now. Goodbye, J.D..” I respond before hanging up the phone and walking downstairs to find mother. After trailing around almost all of downstairs, I eventually find her in the master bedroom watching television.

“Hello, Veronica. How was the last day of the semester?” Mother asks with a smile, sitting up on the bed.

“Very busy, but luckily that’s all over with now. This afternoon, of course, I was going to go over to J.D.’s house like I do every Tuesday to watch television, but since it was a half-day at school today I was wondering if I could go over there earlier? I just got off of the phone with J.D., and he said he could come get me in about twenty minutes if that’s okay.” I ask for permission, hoping that she’ll say yes. After all of the craziness that finals have brought along, I need to escape to somewhere where I can be calm.

“Yes, do you know when you’ll be back?” Mother replies.

“Thank you, and I believe that I should be back around six o’clock, or at least some time before dinner.” I explain, knowing that dinner was her main concern in when I would be back.

“That sounds good. Goodbye, Veronica.” She smiles back. I nod before going back up to my room where the twenty minutes before J.D. arrives feels like twenty hours, but eventually the sound of a doorbell signifies that the time has passed. I rush downstairs and smile when I am met with J.D. after opening the front door.

“Hello, are you ready?” J.D. asks before beginning to walk back over to his motorbike. I nod and follow beside him to get on his bike and drive back to his house. As we enter his house, a question enters my head and I decide to ask J.D. about it.

“Is there any reason for me coming over early, like, in particular?” I question J.D. as I follow him into the living room.

“Well, since you mention it,” J.D. starts, turning around to face me and wrapping his hands around the small of my back, making me blush. “I thought that I could help you destress, you know, after finals and everything.”

“You did?” I smile back, placing my hands on his shoulders. The last time something like this happened we were interrupted by a phone call, and I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t been hoping for something like this to happen again, but this time preferably without the interruptions.

“Yeah.” J.D. responds quickly before leaning down and kissing me. After a second of shock, I run my fingers through his hair and pull him closer to me. A few moments later, J.D. pulls away and looks down the hallway beside us, confusing me, before wrapping his hand around my wrist and leading me towards his bedroom.

Once inside, he quickly closes the door before directing his attention back onto me. He grabs the sides of my waist and lifts me up before setting me down on the edge of his bed and pressing his lips back against mine. I raise my hands and slide off his leather jacket, tossing it to the floor before taking off my blue sweater I wore over my dress.

J.D. pulls away once more, but this time to look me up and down and smile, which causes me to blush. In the moderate silence, I realize how heavily I was breathing. “I thought that the point of this was to calm you down, but it sounds like it’s getting you wound up.” J.D. comments with a small smile.

“Hush.” I roll my eyes, placing my hands behind his neck and pulling him back towards me.


	57. chapter 57

I wake up on a calm winter morning, pulling my blankets around me tighter as I feel the cold air surround me, before finally opening my eyes to the sunlight spilling in through my window. Sitting up on my bed, I run my fingers through my hair as I attempt to fully wake up. Once my memories are able to settle back down in my head, I glance over at my calendar and realize that it was already December 23rd and I haven’t bought any of my christmas presents for anybody yet. After this terrifying realization, I look down at my clock and see that I had slept in until eleven o’clock; two warning signs that my life wasn’t incredibly in order at the moment.

I stand up and slide on a robe before going downstairs to find mother and ask her to take me out to the mall. Unsurprisingly, I find her in the living room watching television and working on some embroidery project.

“Um, mother?” I start up, gaining her attention. “I was wondering if you could take me out to the mall, I need to get some Christmas gifts for friends?” 

Mother sighs with a small laugh before standing up and responding. “This seems a little last minute, but that’s fine. I need to get some groceries for our Christmas dinner anyway. Can you be ready in about thirty minutes?” She asks and I nod happily before rushing back upstairs to get dressed. Almost a week ago, or at least some time before the end of the semester, the girls and I had planned to have our friend Christmas on Christmas eve and I had talked to J.D. about getting together with him and we decided that we could after I got back from going out with the girls, but apparently I had managed to get so wrapped up in tests that I forgot about those plans until today.

Once I’m ready, I grab my purse and go back downstairs to meet mother. She is still in the bedroom when I get downstairs so I decide to sit on the couch and wait for her. Luckily, in just about five minutes she comes out of her room to get me. We go out through the garage door and get in her car before driving off to our town’s mall.

“So, who are we getting presents for today?” Mother asks me as we walk through the main entrance of the mall.

“The Heathers and J.D..” I inform her as I try to brainstorm possible gifts for them.

“Do you know what stores you want to go in?” Mother asks, slowing our walking pace as we pass by the stores.

“I’m not quite sure, I’ll see.” I respond, glancing inside os all of the stores that we pass. “Here.” I state as I turn into a jewelry store. Buying clothes for the girls was rather risky because they are very picky, but jewelry would be much easier; pearls for Heather McNamara, emerald for Heather Duke, and ruby for Heather Chandler. As I walk around the store in search for three specific colors, I silently think to myself about what I could get for J.D.. He’s never seemed very materialistic, at least not for himself, and I know he reads a lot but I’m not quite sure what. As I semi-mindlessly wander around in this small box of a room filled with gems and jewelry far outside of my budget, an idea strikes me; a new jacket. 

Whenever J.D. had given me his leather jacket for a few days, when I gave it back I found out that it was the only one he has. Simply another leather jacket wouldn’t do him much good, it would practically be two of the same thing, so I decide that after I get presents for the girls I’ll stop in the mall’s department store and see if there are any denim jackets to my liking.

“This looks like something Heather Chandler might like.” Mother states, snapping me out of my thoughts, and holding out a bracelet beside me. It was a rather simple but gorgeous charm bracelet; the band was pearl and between every few of them hung small teardrop shaped rubies. “There was a matching ring, too.” Mother points out, probably acknowledging my awe towards the gift.

“She’ll love it.” I smile, taking the bracelet in its case and following mother over to where she said the ring was. The ring was even more beautiful than the bracelet. Tiny pearls dotted around the golden band and right in the center was a square cut ruby. I pick it up in its case too and continue skimming over the store with two more colors on my mind; green and yellow.

WIthin about thirty minutes, and with the great assistance of mother, I’m able to pick out gifts for all of the girls. “Now I just have to get something for J.D..” I sigh to mother as we leave the jewelry store.

“Do you have anything in mind?” Mother asks me as I begin to lead us to whichever big department store our mall has, I never bothered to remember the name of it.

“Yes, I want to get him a nice jacket.” I comment as we walk into the store. In moderate silent between mother and I, contrary to the loud conversations of other last-minute Christmas shoppers that filled the entire mall, we walk around the store until happening upon a small section of mens jackets.

After shuffling through them, majority of which were leather, I find a black dyed denim jacket with a fur lining. I slide it on over my sweater and try to compare the sizing of the denim jacket to J.D.’s leather jacket from the few times that I had worn it. It feels quite similar, possibly slightly larger, which I take as a good thing because he could still grow into it.

“Have you found the one?” Mother asks, walking back over towards me as I put the jacket back on it’s hanger.

“I think so.” I respond before leading us over to the nearest cash register to check out.

“Goodness, Veronica. That jacket was twelve dollars.” Mother remarks as we leave the mall and go back to the car.

“You’ve seen some of the things J.D. has gotten me before,” I begin to explain, referencing the time I showed mother the going steady ring he got me. “And now this is Christmas, so lord knows what he’ll get me now.” I smile, placing all of my bags in the trunk before driving back home with mother where I wrap everyone’s presents.


	58. chapter 58

“Heather, your room is so pretty.” Heather Duke gushes, and sucks up, as we all enter Heather Chandler’s room for our friend gift exchange.

“I try.” Heather Chandler smiles back, picking three small boxes up from her bed and placing them down next to her on the floor where we sit in a circle. On a regular day, Heather Chandler probably would have had a more egotistical or snarky response, but I suppose the fact that we were about to shower her in gifts had lightened her mood. “Veronica, I guess we’ll be nice and let you open up all of your gifts first this year.” Heather smiles as me, and as she speaks the other two placed their gifts for me in front of me. 

All three of my gifts had blue ribbons tied around them in some manner. As I looked around, I noticed that all three of us had noted which gift was for who with a certain color of ribbon. “Well, are you going to open them or what?” Heather McNamara smiles, snapping me out of my thoughts.

“Oh, sorry.” I smile, picking up a long thin box with a tag that read “from Heather Chandler” in beautiful cursive. I slide off the ribbon before unwrapping and opening the small box to reveal a gorgeous gold bracelet with large circle cut blue gems all across it. “Heather, it’s amazing. Thank you.” I smile, looking back up at Heather Chandler in hopes that she can see my sincerity.

“Let me see.” Heather Duke chimes in so I lift up the box so that she and Heather could see it.

“Huh, Heather always said you couldn’t accessorize for shit.” Heather McNamara smiles, causing all four of us to laugh.

“Mine next.” Heather Duke requests, pointing to a small gift bag with a blue ribbon tied in a pretty bow on top. I throw out all of the tissue paper to reveal a matching set of a hair pin and a broach. The broach was a large starburst made up of blue and clear crystals and the hair pin was a tiny comb with the same shade of blue gems lining the edge of it.

“I’m putting this on right now, you all know how I love my broaches.” I joke as I pin the broach onto the collar of my sweater. “Oh, this is just darling. Thank you, Heather.”

Once admiring all of the jewelry I had received so far, I pick up the final box, which must be from Heather McNamara. This box was much larger than the others, so there’s no way it could hold jewelry too. I unwrap it and open up the box to see a delightful white fabric with small blue and yellow flowers scattered across it. I pull it out of the box and unfold it to find out that it was a simple short sleeved dress. The top of it was clearly cut to lay slightly lower than the shoulders and around the waist there were two thin strands of dark blue ribbon. “Heather, this is magnificent.” I smile in awe of the dress.

“Me next.” Heather Chandler buds in abruptly, cutting off my moment. We all take our gifts for Heather and sit them down in front of her. We continue cycling like this until everyone had opened all of their presents. By the end, Heather Chandler had the bracelet and ring I got her, a pair of red kitten heels from Heather Duke, and a blood red satin neck scarf from Heather McNamara. Both Heather Chandler and I got Heather McNamara some form of pearl jewelry and Heather Duke got her a white sweater covered in yellow sunflowers; I had never seen someone so excited over a sweater in my entire life. Heather Duke had received a pair of emerald earrings from me, an absolutely beautiful gold hand mirror with a clear green glass handle from Heather Chandler, and a pearl necklace with three spherical emeralds in the center of it from Heather McNamara. 

The get together was probably the most entertaining and pleasing experience I have ever had with the Heathers. Everyone was happy because it was the holiday season, not to mention the fact that every single one of us were having jewels and gems practically thrown at us. Sadly, I didn’t have time to go home and admire all of the presents I had been given because by the time I returned home, I only had about fifteen minutes before J.D. was supposed to arrive for the two of us to have our little Christmas.

Just after putting away all of the clothes and jewelry I had received and setting J.D.’s present out on by bed, almost right on time, the doorbell rings. I rush back down the stairs to find that mother had already let J.D. inside and was greeting him, something that still made me slightly uncomfortable.

The second J.D. and I make eye contact, though, his attention is fully directed onto me. I smile lightly towards him as he begins to walk over to me. “I’m sure Veronica can show you up to her room.” Mother comments before returning back to the kitchen.

“Merry Christmas.” J.D. smiles, lifting up a small box he had hidden behind his wrist.

“Come on.” I instruct, leading him up the stairs and into my bedroom. “You first, I insist.” I state as we sit down on my bed and I hand J.D. his present. “As I recall, the time you have me your jacket for a few days you made the comment that it was the only one you owned, so…” I explain as he pulls the denim jacket out of the box.

“Thank you, Veronica.” J.D. smiles as he looks back up at me. “But now you.” He says, once again going to hand me a small box. I unwrap the small present to find an absolutely gorgeous silver necklace with a heart cut sapphire in the center.

“You’re going to have to stop buying me such expensive gifts, I feel bad.” I laugh as I take the necklace out of the box and, with slight difficulty, put it on myself.

“Don’t. I like getting you things, it makes you seem happy.” J.D. replies, keeping his eyes directly in line with mine.

“I’m not happy because of the gifts, I’m happy because I’m with you.”


	59. chapter 59- the end

Later that night, after I had given gifts to and received gifts from all of my friends, I faced the real challenge that I have had since as long as I could remember: going to bed on Christmas Eve. It was absolutely the most childish thing, but something about Christmas has always just made me happy and excited. Eventually, around eleven o’clock, I am finally able to fall asleep peacefully on a cold, snowy, quiet Christmas Eve night.

My excitement had apparently causes exhaustion, though, because now as I sit up in my bed on Christmas I realize that it’s already ten in the morning. The second I gather my thoughts and realize that it’s Christmas, I don’t even bother changing out of my pajamas before rushing downstairs.

I find mother and father at the breakfast table in the kitchen, drinking their morning coffee. “Merry Christmas, Ronnie.” Mother smiles as she notices me practically run into the room.

“Merry Christmas.” I smile back, spinning around on my toes.

“I guess we can go ahead and start opening presents.” Father laughs as he stands up from his chair and walks over into the living room with me, mother following close behind us. By the end of the day I was left with much more clothes, jewelry, perfume, and makeup than when I started the day. It was hands down my favorite Christmas so far, but I’ve found myself saying that about every Christmas for the past few years.

***

Now that Christmas has passed, winter break is beginning to feel much more sluggish. I’ve already finished all of my assignments for the break, but it’s too cold to go out and do most things that I would normally do. The girls would probably want to go ice skating if I asked, but afterwards that would make me even more sluggish.

Suddenly, the solution to my problems arrives through the ringing of my phone. “Hello?” I ask as I raise my phone up to my ear.

“Hi, Veronica. It’s J.D., how are you?” I hear a voice respond on the other line.

“Well, I’m doing quite good now that you’ve called. It’s been awfully boring in the Sawyer house recently.” I complain to him.

“It’s been awfully boring here today, too. Why don’t you see if you can come over in a little while, maybe around four o’clock?” J.D. suggests and I feel myself begin to smile.

“That sounds absolutely amazing. I’ll go ask and then call you right back, bye.” I respond before hanging up the phone and going downstairs to hunt for mother, which takes slightly longer than usual because she isn’t in her usual lounging area of the living room, but instead outside on the porch. “Mother,” I start up, causing her to lift her head from the magazine she had indulged herself in. “Could I go over to J.D.’s house later today?”

“Sure, do you know what time?” She answers with a question, a small smile forming on her lips.

“He said four.” I respond. Mother nods and goes back to her magazine, a sign that I was excused. I rush back upstairs to call J.D. back and let him know that I could come over. After doing so, I check my clock and see that it was already 3:40, so I decide to go ahead and get ready. I put on proper clothes and fix my hair, as well as put on jewelry, which included the necklace J.D. had given me for Christmas, since I had already deemed it to be a part of the jewelry that I wear almost everyday.

I travel back downstairs and J.D. arrives very soon afterwards. We just say our simple hellos and wait to hold actual conversations until we get to his house. “I do have a little surprise for you today.” J.D. starts up conversation as we walk into his living room.

“And what would that be?” I ask nervously, although his tone suggested that this was a good surprise.

“I got accepted into Ohio State.”

“J.D., that’s amazing!” I smile as I hug him. Seeing how happy he was about the subject made me happy too, but once I thought about it more I began to have very mixed feelings. He would be able to live on his own and have more control over his life, as well as get away from his father which is amazing, but he would also be away from me for a year.

“What is it?” J.D. asks as he pulls away from me, probably noticing my change in facial expression.

“Oh, nothing. It’s just- you’re going to be gone for a whole year.” I remind him.

“It’s not like I won’t visit on weekends or anything.” He laughs, lifting my spirits slightly. “Besides, I won’t be leaving for, what, another year and a half? We don’t have anything to worry about just yet.” 

His words do help out a decent bit as I realize that we’ve only been together for about three months and we have a whole year and a half before he leaves. “You’re right. So, what are we doing today? Because my vote is on movie night.” I smile, attempting to forget about him moving.

“Well then, I guess we’re having a movie night.” J.D. smiles back before leading me into the kitchen. We get the usual snacks of sodas and popcorn before heading over to the couch where J.D. takes on the job of finding us movies to watch. “Just our luck, this channel just started playing Creature from the Black Lagoon no more than five minutes ago.” J.D. comments before coming to sit down by on the couch. We had pretty much gotten to the point where we didn’t have to ask the other if they like a certain movie. We had a decent understanding of each other’s taste; that taste being pretty much any sci fi movie.

“So, do you have any plans coming up soon?” I ask J.D., striking up a conversation amid the movie.

“Other than preparing for the return of school, not really. What about you?”

“Heather McNamara wants me to sleep over on Friday, so that’s where I’ll be spending my night.” I sigh with a light smile.

“Now that is the one that you are actually friends with, correct?” J.D. asks me. We don’t really talk about each Heather individually, I tend to refer to them as a whole, so his confusion was justified.

“Yes. Then there’s Heather Chandler who is the leader, also the one who threatened to kick me out a few weeks back, and then there’s Heather Duke, but I never really talk to her, at least I haven’t really since that one trip to the drive in. Oh, yeah, she was the one who invited me to that. I don’t hold it against her or anything, we just lead very different lives.” I explain to J.D.. Similar conversation is held throughout the rest of the evening: our social lives, our school lives, and our home lives. And for that one sshimmering moment, all was well.


End file.
